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Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

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Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#61

Post by ci5er »

exmuslim wrote: post #2

So that's like ~$400M of income per month? Their expenses are mostly royalties and those are probably spare change compared to that income. Not bad!

COGS is going to be ~60% of revenue. That's the royalties.

Gross Margin = Gross Revenue - COGS.

We're down to under $160M.

Spotify has (or had) 1600+ employees. If these were US (CA) based, we'd estimate higher, but since Europeans are relatively "cheaper", let's call it $75K/employee all-in (taxes, benefits, etc.). That's probably light, and doesn't take into account rent or data centers or any expenses, and that costs them ~$120M.

That leaves $40M for "everything else". Assuming that their employees are indeed "as cheap" on average as guesstimated above.

Conclusion: they are surely losing money.

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#62

Post by circa »

solaxun wrote: post #46
circa wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not agree more. I was a big Rdio fan and went to the ways of Apple Music because the family plan is so cheap. Wish they would integrate Last.fm and a web interface though. The 12.5.1 version is a step in the right direction though. Along with iOS 10. Excited to see what Pandora will offer as well.

I know it's easy for me to be an armchair quarterback but I have to say it. Although I am currently and somewhat reluctantly paying for it (for now), Spotify's UI makes me want to strangle someone every time I use it. I can never remember exactly what ridiculous combinatoric puzzle of screens I need to cycle through in order to get where I want to go. It feels like I'm trying to enter a fucking launch code for a nucl…

Absolutely 100% agree. Its why I went with Apple Music after the death of Rdio. I had a horrible experience when i had a 90-day trial. I stopped using it after a week and even canceled my subscription early. It was awful. That was a few years ago and I'm sure a few things improved, but still the free desktop version annoys me. During my trial, this was back when you had to create a playlist in order to listen to the whole album. Who had that idea?! Ever since then Spotify has always left a bad taste in my mouth.

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#63

Post by microtonal »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #43
bearcobra wrote: post #33

I wonder how many of these 40M users are like me and are searching for other options. I'm using Spotify because of an intro offer, and my Google Play account exists almost solely for the discount on other content. Both have enough annoying design quirks that I've also tried Tidal and Apple Music, but their recommendation engines left me wanting more. Based on my love of Rdio, I'm really hoping Pandora's rumored new s…

Take a look at Apple Music again. They just started doing two personal weekly playlists (like Spotify's Discover Weekly). One is full of tracks you haven't listened to before (it seems pretty good so far) and the other is a weekly 'favourites' mix which seems to be 90% stuff in your library and 10% stuff not in your library but by artists you like (e.g. new releases). It's really good. I was using a mix of Spotify an…

Also, Beats 1 is really nice. There's nothing like Josh Homme or Mike D playing their favorite (sometimes obscure) tracks. I've definitely discovered more music per month since subscribing to Apple Music than anytime before.

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#64

Post by [deleted] »

bearcobra wrote: post #33

I wonder how many of these 40M users are like me and are searching for other options. I'm using Spotify because of an intro offer, and my Google Play account exists almost solely for the discount on other content. Both have enough annoying design quirks that I've also tried Tidal and Apple Music, but their recommendation engines left me wanting more. Based on my love of Rdio, I'm really hoping Pandora's rumored new s…

[deleted]

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#65

Post by dandr01d »

solaxun wrote: post #57
bearcobra wrote: post #33

I wonder how many of these 40M users are like me and are searching for other options. I'm using Spotify because of an intro offer, and my Google Play account exists almost solely for the discount on other content. Both have enough annoying design quirks that I've also tried Tidal and Apple Music, but their recommendation engines left me wanting more. Based on my love of Rdio, I'm really hoping Pandora's rumored new s…

I know it's easy for me to be an armchair quarterback but I have to say it. Although I am currently and somewhat reluctantly paying for it (for now), Spotify's UI makes me want to strangle someone every time I use it. I can never remember exactly what ridiculous combination of screens I need to cycle through in order to get where I want to go. It feels like I'm trying to enter a fucking launch code for a nuclear subm…

Google Play Music has the most frustrating UI as well. It takes 4 taps to start playing the playlist I want to every time (most recently added).

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#66

Post by jdavis703 »

bearcobra wrote: post #33

I wonder how many of these 40M users are like me and are searching for other options. I'm using Spotify because of an intro offer, and my Google Play account exists almost solely for the discount on other content. Both have enough annoying design quirks that I've also tried Tidal and Apple Music, but their recommendation engines left me wanting more. Based on my love of Rdio, I'm really hoping Pandora's rumored new s…

Are there any API-first services out there?

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#67

Post by k-mcgrady »

microtonal wrote: post #63
k-mcgrady wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a look at Apple Music again. They just started doing two personal weekly playlists (like Spotify's Discover Weekly). One is full of tracks you haven't listened to before (it seems pretty good so far) and the other is a weekly 'favourites' mix which seems to be 90% stuff in your library and 10% stuff not in your library but by artists you like (e.g. new releases). It's really good. I was using a mix of Spotify an…

Also, Beats 1 is really nice. There's nothing like Josh Homme or Mike D playing their favorite (sometimes obscure) tracks. I've definitely discovered more music per month since subscribing to Apple Music than anytime before.

Beats 1 is fantastic. I listen to Zane Lowe's show everyday. It's a pretty diverse mix of music so even if I don't like everything I always discover some new stuff I never would have otherwise. I listen to Josh Homme, Elton John, and deadmau5 on demand. Matt Wilkinson is also quite good. The key feature for me is that I can easily add the tracks to my library while listening. That makes it a great discovery tool as paired with the 'recently added' view in iTunes I end up listening to the tracks a lot for a week or two and dig into the artists more in my own time.

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#68

Post by mulletbum »

bearcobra wrote: post #56
k-mcgrady wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a look at Apple Music again. They just started doing two personal weekly playlists (like Spotify's Discover Weekly). One is full of tracks you haven't listened to before (it seems pretty good so far) and the other is a weekly 'favourites' mix which seems to be 90% stuff in your library and 10% stuff not in your library but by artists you like (e.g. new releases). It's really good. I was using a mix of Spotify an…

I'll take another look. One of the things I miss most about Rdio was an option to pick how "adventurous" I wanted my personalized playlists to be, so that favorites option would be a nice switch from the Discover Weekly model

Slacker Radio has this. It is pretty good.

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#69

Post by ArtDev »

I pay for Spotify but it sucks because:

1) I can't play it on multiple devices at the same time like every other service I subscribe to (Netflix, Hbo, Hulu). If I ever upgrade to a"family" account, I have to make new accounts for each person (including my kids).

2) The UI sucks. I can never find the queue list, so I never know what is playing next. Adding items to a playlist is should be easier.

3) The web app is really broken. You have to install the Spotify software to use the service.

4) Offline playlists randomly decide they have not been downloaded yet.

5) Nothing by the Beatles. Like every other music service, the only way is to rip your old CDs or torrent them.

One feature I do like, listening to local music files on the Spotify software. Like, for example, the Beatles.

I really wish Grooveshark was still around!

[edit] Now that I read that Spotify (and similar companies) are actually losing money I realize that I shouldn't be so hard on them.

Re: Spotify have reached 40M paying subscribers

#70

Post by lostlogin »

JTon wrote: post #12
helthanatos wrote: post #9

Spotify has achieved what no normal entity could. Go them for having a relatively decent free to play with, I'm assuming, a good pay to play model as well.

In Canada, one of the major wireless providers offers Spotify premium accounts bundled in with mid and high tier data lines (i.e. 2 years of Spotify premium "for free"). So I wonder what other providers around the world do this, and how many of the 40mm are part of this group.

Spark - Nee Zealand.
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