Spotify

Apple Music has been steadily growing over the past few years, and giving Spotify more competition along the way. Now, a new report from The Wall Street Journal says that Apple has overtaken Spotify in paid US subscribers for the first time.

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When streaming music started to take off, there were many pundits suggesting that it would be the death of the music industry, with total revenues plunging. In fact, says the industry’s worldwide trade body, the opposite has been true.

Streaming music has seen total recording industry revenue rise for the fourth year running …

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Yesterday morning, Apple responded to Spotify’s aggressive PR campaign regarding its App Store policies. Now, Spotify has fired back at Apple yet again, this time calling the company a “monopolist” and saying its policies hurt consumers and competition.

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On Wednesday, Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission regarding Apple’s App Store policies and started an aggressive PR campaign to back it up. Apple has today published a public statement in response to Spotify’s argument.

Apple says that Spotify is spreading a ‘misleading rhetoric’. They cite how Spotify makes most of its revenue from advertising and mobile carrier partner deals, of which Apple takes no cut at all. The In-App Purchase subscriptions are a small percentage of Spotify’s business — and Spotify wants to pay Apple zero for those subscription sales meaning they are essentially taking the benefits of a free app and Apple receives no compensation at all from Spotify’s operations.

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Industry observers have been commenting on three potential risks from the complaint Spotify has made against Apple in regard to its App Store policies.

An anonymous source close to Spotify has also explained why the same complaint hasn’t been levied against Google, which also takes a cut from in-app purchases …

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Earlier today, Spotify launched a new website called It’s Time to Play Fair, where it proceeded to lay out a timeline and “facts” about how Apple mistreats companies like Spotify. I saw a few snippets of it this morning, but once I had a chance to read the entire thing I almost laughed out loud.

The delusion that the entire site has is a poor attempt to build a Steve Jobs’ style reality distortion field. Spotify had a “Facts” page, and I want to respond to it point by point. Before you a leave comment that I am an Apple fanboy, I would like to point you to articles where I prove that is not the case.
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Spotify has filed a complaint with the European Commission regarding Apple’s App Store practices, the company announced in a blog post. Spotify says Apple’s App Store rules limit choice and stifle innovation.

Spotify targets Apple’s 30% cut — it refers to as a ‘tax’ — as a key element of its complaint but also references rules about how Apple restricts third-party app developers from communicating with customers. Ultimately, Spotify wants Apple Music to be forced to abide by the same rules that Apple imposes on third-party apps.

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If you have been considering a Spotify Premium account, the company is upping the ante with a new offer. Just under a year ago, it offered a deal to bundle in a basic Hulu plan for $12.99/month – a $5/month saving – but it’s now going one better and making Hulu completely free …

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While Spotify recently launched its service in India, Warner Music Group is still fighting the company over rights in the country. However, it looks like Warner Music’s intentions go beyond India.

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Spotify, an Apple Music competitor and one of the largest music streaming services available, is today hitting a roadblock with bringing its service to India. The music label Warner Music Group today asked Indian court to block Spotify from allowing songs from its artists from being played in the country.

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Spotify has been in the news a lot in recent weeks due to their acquisition of Gimlet Media and Anchor. Since it’s debut in 2008, Spotify has been focused on one thing: music. A few years ago, Spotify added a podcast section, but until now, it’s been a minor part of the platform. Going forward, it’s clear that Spotify is transitioning from a music company to an audio company. Spotify deserves a lot of credit for driving the music industry forward, but I am concerned about its business health long-term.

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Spotify has announced its Q4 earnings, up 30%, and revealed that its paid subscriber base grew from 87M to 96M – albeit helped dramatically by a free speaker promotion, in which Family Plan subscribers were able to claim a free Google Home Mini speaker.

We ran our annual Holiday conversion promotion during Q4, which outperformed our expectations for new subscriber additions. Over the course of 6 weeks, almost 7 million subscribers were added through this campaign, including a single day record of almost 500,000.

The streaming music service also had some surprising news about the importance of podcasts to the company …

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