Streaming is Saving Music – Page 2

Narrative: Streaming is Saving Music

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Spotify Signs Deal with Warner Music, Paving Way for Going Public (Aug 24, 2017)

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Spotify

Streaming is Saving Music

Spotify Launches in Thailand, its Seventh Asian Market and 61st Market Overall (Aug 22, 2017)

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Spotify

Streaming is Saving Music

Spotify Wants to Rival Facebook and Google in Advertising (Aug 17, 2017)

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Spotify

SoundCloud Closes New Investment, Shuffles Management, Pivots Business (Aug 11, 2017)

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SoundCloud

Streaming is Saving Music

SoundCloud is Asking Existing Backers to Support a Rescue Deal (Aug 10, 2017)

Despite SoundCloud’s repeated protestations that it’s not on the verge of going under, the scuttlebutt has been that it is indeed just a few months from running out of cash, and two recent new investors have been reported as potential saviors: Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and the Raine Group. SoundCloud is now reportedly communicating with existing investors and asking them to back the rescue effort by these two new backers as a last-ditch attempt to avoid having to wind down the business. Some of the numbers involved are a bit crazy – the new investment is $169.5 million at a $150 million pre-money enterprise valuation and some existing shareholders will see their liquidity preference slashed by 40%. But all this would apparently put the company on a much sounder financial footing and allow it to consider searching for a way out of its current predicament. I’m still bearish that there’s any way to really turn SoundCloud around given its history and what’s happened in the industry since it experienced its meteoric rise, and imagine the most likely long-term outcome is still an acquisition for intellectual property and possibly customer data. Update: Recode is reporting that the CEO will be replaced and kicked upstairs to the board chair role in favor of former Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor if the deal goes through, which now seems very likely based on other reporting later in the day.

via Axios

SoundCloud

Streaming is Saving Music

Pandora’s Premium Subscription Growth Slows in Q2 (Jul 31, 2017)

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Pandora

Streaming is Saving Music

Spotify Has 60 Million Paid Subscribers (Jul 31, 2017)

The Financial Times reports that Spotify has hit the 60 million paid subscriber milestone, a fact that has now been confirmed by the company’s press site, where it also says it has 140 million active users in total, suggesting 80 million free users. It had previously reported 50 million paid users in early March of this year, suggesting it took just under 5 months to add a million subscribers, while Apple Music added around half that over the same period. It’s been fascinating to watch Spotify’s growth accelerate in the aftermath of Apple’s launch of its competing service, as streaming takes off as the dominant form of music consumption and paid subscriptions generate the vast majority of streaming revenue. That’s indicative of Spotify’s success in both establishing itself as the de facto standard in the market and creating social features that help win new subscribers, and also at signing partnerships with wireless carriers and others who help promote discounted subscriptions. As Spotify’s financial results for last year show, its average revenue per paid subscriber has been dropping rapidly, something I suspect has continued this year. But it’s the paid business that’s profitable on a segment basis, while free streaming loses money, which is why I suggested in a piece for Variety last week that it ditch the free tier. I’m only partially serious about that – the free tier remains by far Spotify’s best marketing tool, but it also remains a point of contention with the music labels, among which Warner is the remaining holdout in signing a new long-term deal.

via Financial Times