Tag: Spotify
Posted inData, News

Spotify closing in on 30m subscribers

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

For some time now, the music industry has been anticipating a big milestone for Spotify: 100 million active users.

Actually, though, the more important milestone to think about is 30 million paying subscribers – a figure that the Financial Times claims Spotify will reach by the summer.

“Spotify’s most recent subscriber numbers were released last June when it said it had 75m active users, of which 20m were paying subscribers. It added 8m paying users by the end of 2015 and is on course to hit 30m in the next three months,” reported the FT.

Posted inNews

Katy Perry partners with Spotify to woo artists pre-Grammys

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Katy Perry is fronting an event called ‘An Evening to Celebrate the Creators’ this weekend, co-hosted by Sia, Missy Elliott and Greg Kurstin.

The sponsor: Spotify, as its latest effort to win artists round to the benefits of streaming.

“You have to be a creator — it’s artists, producers and songwriters,” Perry told the New York Times: even managers and publicists aren’t invited.

“I actually went to Spotify to get informed on the world of streaming. Two years ago, it was like, ‘Streaming, streaming, streaming!’ And I was like, what is streaming and what does it mean for me?” said Perry.

Posted inNews

Labels will share Spotify windfall with artists – but how?

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Sony and Warner have both confirmed this month that if and when Spotify goes public, they will share the rewards from their equity stakes in the company with artists.

Indie licensing agency Merlin had previously said the same. Amid the praise for these policies, the International Music Managers Forum has highlighted a relevant question: how on earth will the loot be shared out?

Posted inMarketing, Sandbox

Sandbox 150 – Get Real: Music braces itself for the next VR surge

Avatar photo by Music Ally

Lead: Facebook and Google are both well along the road and Apple is finally joining the race. With the three biggest names in digital backing virtual reality, we can now officially call it A Thing. Some in music marketing had their Damascene moment years ago while some are only just now feeling the electric crackle of potential – but […]

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Posted inData, News

Spotify takes Dutch courage from Netherlands music growth

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Recorded-music spending grew by 11% in the Netherlands in 2015, while live spending rose by 14% – and Spotify says its growth in the country has played an important role.

The streaming service’s director of economics Will Page hailed the return to growth in consumer spending on recorded-music after 11 straight years of decline as “truly remarkable”, in his keynote speech at the FastForward conference in Amsterdam.

“Back in 2003, Dutch consumers spent €400m on recorded music, and they spent somewhere just under €300m on gigs. In the time that’s passed, that recorded spend has slumped to new lows, going down to about €200m and falling further still,” said Page.

Posted inMarketing

Believe Digital: Spotify playlists can’t break an artist alone

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Getting an artist featured on prominent Spotify playlists is not a recipe for streaming success on its own, according to James Farrelly, head of trade marketing for the UK and Ireland at music distributor Believe Digital.

“Labels are expecting placement in a New Music Friday playlist, whether that’s on Spotify or Deezer or Apple Music, to be the answer to everything,” said Farrelly, in a speech at the FastForward conference in Amsterdam.

Posted inNews

WMG and Sony to share Spotify windfall with artists

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

The long-sensitive question about what major labels would do with any windfall from a Spotify IPO has emerged again, with the labels scrambling to stress that they would share any profits with artists.

It’s a rerun of the moment last year when all three majors revealed details of their policies on breakages in response to criticism over “black box” income sitting in their bank accounts.

Warner Music boss Stephen Cooper started the dominoes falling this time round. “In the event we do receive cash proceeds from the sale of these equity stakes, we will also share this revenue with our artists on the same basis as we share revenue from actual usage and digital breakage,” he said of WMG’s equity stakes in services like Spotify and SoundCloud, in the company’s latest financial earnings call.

Posted inReports

Music Ally Report 382 – Startup Shutdown

by Lil Patuck

Our cover feature surveys the startup boneyard to try and understand precisely why so many music services, all promising a fizzing new future at their launch, hit the wall quickly, found out they were in the wrong lane when it was too late or simply ran out of juice. It’s a difficult, sometimes painful read, but unless […]

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Posted inNews

Spotify seeking $500m of new funding claims Swedish report

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It’s little more than half a year since Spotify raised its last funding round of $526m, but according to a Swedish press report, the music-streaming service is tapping investors for more cash now.

Newspaper Svenska Dagbladet claimed that Spotify is meeting investors next week to seek a further $500m through convertible loan notes: loans that can be converted into equity at a later date.

Posted inNews

Spotify rolling out video features – but could there be more music?

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Spotify revealed plans to add shortform video shows to its service in May 2015, working with a number of YouTube multi-channel networks (MCNs) including some exclusive shows.

This week, those plans will finally come to fruition. The US, UK, Germany and Sweden will be the first four countries to get the new video content, initially in Spotify’s Android app, with iOS following next week.