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Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

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Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#121

Post by Thaxll »

jklinger410 wrote: post #102
komali2 wrote: post #47

I'm not quite clear on why people are choosing spotify over google play music - to me the google option is superior in UI and offerings (including ad-free youtube). Am I missing something? Is it just one runs better on iPhones or is more hip (like why people choose snapchat over instagram or something)?

As someone who just made this choice, let me add some insight. - My friends use Spotify - Larger library - Well made playlists - Social feed In the end, they are very similar products. I feel that Spotify has a huge head start on Google here, and it shows. The more mature product is Spotify. I think Google can't really compete in terms of curation and popularity. Really, the edge cases of "music that is not on Spotif…

Larger library? They all use the same base library afaik.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#122

Post by froindt »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
froindt wrote: post #5

Maybe my perception is off, but it seems like we're getting lots of tech IPO's in a relatively short time. Stitch Fix, Dropbox, Blue Apron, Snap, and Roku to name a few. For a long time we weren't seeing too many big tech IPO's. Did something fundamentally change in the market to lead to this, or did all these companies just happen to make it to "market maturity" around the same time?

> Did something fundamentally change in the market to lead to this, or did all these companies just happen to make it to "market maturity" around the same time? One successful IPO will beget a whole raft of follow-ons in similar segments to profit from the 'atmosphere' as much as possible. Until the first one that bombs, then it is immediately game over. So there tends to be a bursty nature to this IPO thing.

Thanks. I don't follow IPO's too closely and was less than 10 for the .com bubble filled with IPO's. I'm still learning the general patterns.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#123

Post by skinnymuch »

whatok wrote: post #72
whitepoplar wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discover Weekly

Who is listening to all of this self-published music to get training data for Discover Weekly?

Discover Weekly as far as i know didn’t begin immediately or at least wasn’t what it is now at first. Now it’s great. Spotify has so much past and present data from listeners. Way more than they need.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#124

Post by oh_sigh »

synaesthesisx wrote: post #27

I do love Spotify as a product, however I don't think it will scale the same way Netflix does. Spotify is at the mercy of major record labels, and as their books become more transparent the record labels will squeeze every dollar they can for licensing. That is, unless they find a way to upend the record industry entirely. Spotify has a unique position with their amazing discovery/recommendations engine- they could p…

Small artists are great, but music and money to be made from music seems to be dominated by large artists. Could Spotify ever sign, say, Taylor Swift?

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#125

Post by linkmotif »

synaesthesisx wrote: post #27

I do love Spotify as a product, however I don't think it will scale the same way Netflix does. Spotify is at the mercy of major record labels, and as their books become more transparent the record labels will squeeze every dollar they can for licensing. That is, unless they find a way to upend the record industry entirely. Spotify has a unique position with their amazing discovery/recommendations engine- they could p…

> That is, unless they find a way to upend the record industry entirely.

It seems like they can and are on their way already.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#126

Post by 089723645897236 »

I personally have supported them since beta (when they charged more) so I will probably pick up a share or two. They are certainly worth NFLX money. Music is insanely easy to produce, it is certain they will start courting artists directly, and if they can find an acquisition that fills the DIY punk music scene that was Soundcloud they will be just fine. They need more DIY content to go along with the curated big label stuff. And by DIY I mean letting every small Bandcamp DJ and artist on there. Might as well swallow everything right?

The experience on the platform was always stellar and just keeps getting better the more data they collect. It's a good example where big data isn't creepy at all, it's amazing. They constantly filter my preferences and show me the key types of songs I like to listen to, impressive in itself but the song radio aping Pandora is also impressive and way more interactive than Pandora itself.

Basically I'm mega bullish Spotify and am not even going to front like I'm not. You don't need to buy it but I doubt it goes anywhere bad. /end-activist-investor-rant

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#127

Post by zer00eyz »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #25
zer00eyz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value, well it is "investor demand" The going public part -- well that was foretold with their last round of financing (it was a condition) and this was a strange way to do it. You may love the product but will it last is the question. If I were going to bet I would say that 5 years down the road someone buys it for pennies on the dollar or it goes bankrupt due to toxic debt. I wonder what the short position is o…

> this was a strange way to do it. This was done partially because the company itself isn't raising money. If the company executives believed they would need a large cash cushion, they would have tried to raise some cash in the deal, so they must believe they can reverse course before the cash crunch

It wasn't about raising money - they had their hand forced by the last round of debt/equity deal that they did:

https://www.recode.net/2018/1/3/16847786/spotify-tpg-tencent...

Not that it is a great article but honestly that looks like a very messy transaction. It also looks like Spotify got the raw end of that deal. The whole thing is just crazy and I'm not sure how anyone can make sense of those numbers.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#128

Post by kgwgk »

paulie_a wrote: post #106
isostatic wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or purchase some existing labels. Warner, which is about 20% of the global market, was worth $3.3b -- 11% of spotify -- in 2011 [1] If I read that correctly, it implies the bulk of the recording industry is worth less than Spotify. 1. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-warnermusic/blavatniks-ac...

People tend to overestimate the size of the music and movie industries, apple and google could buy them outright with change from their couch cushions.

Apple and Google could, but I doubt Spotify has a few billions around to make any acquisition.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#130

Post by komali2 »

jklinger410 wrote: post #102
komali2 wrote: post #47

I'm not quite clear on why people are choosing spotify over google play music - to me the google option is superior in UI and offerings (including ad-free youtube). Am I missing something? Is it just one runs better on iPhones or is more hip (like why people choose snapchat over instagram or something)?

As someone who just made this choice, let me add some insight. - My friends use Spotify - Larger library - Well made playlists - Social feed In the end, they are very similar products. I feel that Spotify has a huge head start on Google here, and it shows. The more mature product is Spotify. I think Google can't really compete in terms of curation and popularity. Really, the edge cases of "music that is not on Spotif…

Are there any specific artists that you've been able to find on Spotify but not on GPM? I haven't run into this problem yet (except one time when Mick Gordon maybe forgot to renew or something his Wolfestein soundtrack? It was fixed within a week though)
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