Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 479 posts

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

#261

Post by bsder »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #161
089723645897236 wrote: post #126

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 lab…

You don't mention The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and the 100's of other artists that Spotify streams millions of times. I feel DIY punk music and music that is "insanely easy to produce" is not going to make much of a dent in the massive demand for the classics/popular bands. Also, as a musician of 20 years having recorded multiple records, I don't agree good music insanely easy to make. The plethora of mediocre music ou…

Do the young really care about the back catalog anymore?

I'm not just being snide. Think about Elvis. When was the last time you heard something from Elvis on the radio or in your stream?

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

#262

Post by Zarath »

Asdfbla wrote: post #132
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…

Didn't record labels complain some time ago that Spotify had supposedly commissioned music for its instrumental playlists (presumably to save money on royalties)? There's probably a danger that large record labels will threaten to revoke their licensing agreements if they think that Spotify may start competing with them on that front. Not sure if that will be a problem, though, I'm not familiar with the whole streami…

Yes. The one in particular I heard about was one of their ambient playlists, where an artist called "Deep Watch" (whom nobody had heard of previously) was supposedly placed into the playlist to avoid having to pay the artists that would otherwise take that place.

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

#263

Post by rm999 »

mabramo wrote: post #258
bogomipz wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Starting their own label is exactly what they need to do to remain competitive. It's exactly what Netflix ended up doing and I think it's turning out pretty well for them." This seems to be a common refrain that Spotify can just "pull a Netflix." And this is very unlikely. Firstly no matter how much opriginal content they could create, if they don't have back catalog it's going to be a total non-starter for the mai…

Spotify should not "pull a Netflix". Spotify should "pull a Bandcamp". Rather, Bandcamp should start a streaming service. I've had a payment model in my pocket for years that I think would work really well for them.

This wouldn't make much of an impact because the statistical distribution of music listening time has an extremely long tail, i.e. the most popular songs are far more popular than even other very popular songs. In a given market, something like 90% of listening time will come from the top few hundred tracks, and 99% will come from the first couple thousand. Those top couple thousands tracks are already well-served by alternative distribution channels (youtube, "indie" labels, etc), so there isn't much room for disruption there. Starting a service to fight for that 1% of listening time will not move the needle.

source: I used to work in the data side of the music industry.

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

#264

Post by Zarath »

foepys wrote: post #231
adventured wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very doubtful that Disney is or could be an serious issue for Netflix now. Netflix is approaching - or already larger than - the size of Disney's comparable entertainment business, and Netflix is growing relatively fast whereas Disney's business isn't growing much or at all. Disney's studio division does $8.3 billion in sales. Their media networks arm, which includes ABC & ESPN, does $23 billion. Netflix will hi…

I don't think you understand how much power Disney has. They own all popular superhero movies. Nearly all well-known children's movies are owned by them. Star Wars now is their IP. Netflix has what? House of Cards (which was discontinued)? 30 other TV shows that range from okay to "people talk about it once or twice to their friends"? 5 movies that are produced slightly higher than a TV show with mostly mediocre rati…

You're right that Disney's IP is orders of magnitude better. But "Stranger Things" is much higher than 'people talk about it once or twice to their friends' (along with others like Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, The Crown, Making a Murdered, etc.), though not on the level of Star Wars or Marvel obviously

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

#265

Post by Zarath »

nickysielicki wrote: post #110
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…

> Spotify has a unique position with their amazing discovery/recommendations engine- they could potentially start their own "label" and promote their own artists that sign on. Small/independent musicians could see more exposure and Spotify can deliver more music tailored for individual tastes. I've personally found myself listening to lots of small/indie artists as a result of their algorithms, to the point that thes…

last.fm is easily the best discovery tool I've ever used. They do have spotify integration now though

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

#269

Post by r0m4n0 »

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)?

Amongst many of the other things listed by others here, a big item for me is integrations between all your logged in devices. One killer example: I can listen to a playlist through my ps4 while gaming (a unique feature in of itself), pull out my phone and pick another song in the playlist on my app. It tells me just below the play button where the music is currently streaming.

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

#270

Post by elvirs »

im curious why spotify does not enable artist sell merchandise and tickets on its platform. as a free user I would prefer to see ads for merch and events happening near my town from my favorite artists rather than annoying ads of products and services I have 0 interest in.
Post reply on HN