Comments on: Spotify – Free foundation

By: Tim Nash

Tim Nash — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 10:45:45 +0000

What Spotify and Apple Music disrupted was customers owning small groups of songs, by offering access to most of the catalogue for a monthly fee. Who owns the catalogue stays the same – effectively the labels have changed the downstream distribution system. Its also arguable that playlists will take over from much of music radio but these days the money in music is in live.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 09:40:52 +0000

I think that is the old way of thinking. The music labels are monopolistic distribution systems. Digital utterly disrupts that and Apple Music and Spotify should be able to do a better job at getting music to those that are likely to like it than the labels… Their number is up IMHO.

By: Tim Nash

Tim Nash — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 12:29:00 +0000

Music is still a contact based business and it makes sense for most acts to leverage the major labels. Unless the acts are able, like the Stones, to control the Masters for their recordings, the labels will always have a catalogue the streaming services need.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 12:15:06 +0000

Yes it is and it is dying because its catalogue is quite limited and its ability to understand what its users like and the characteristics of its catalogue is very limited. There was a time when it made some sense for Spotify to buy it but that time has passed…

By: windsorr

windsorr — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 12:13:41 +0000

Yes thats right but I think thats only to allow families that run different platforms to still use the Apple family plan…

By: windsorr

windsorr — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 12:12:53 +0000

Agree with your last sentiment but not the first… The tide is starting to turn against the labels who will in the next 5 years have nothing but an ageing catalogue.. they will be disrupted and put out of business IMHO.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 08:14:43 +0000

Isn’t Pandora mostly an ad supported radio product (vs subscription streaming product at Spotify & Apple Music)?
Will be interesting to see what Sirius XM can do with Pandora. Any thoughts?

By: Jarno Pelkonen

Jarno Pelkonen — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 08:07:23 +0000

… And Spotify proposition is cross-platform, whereas Apple Music proposition is inherently tied to Apple brand. Apple Music was released on Android only recently and I bet only few are aware of it.

By: Tim Nash

Tim Nash — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 08:06:12 +0000

The free user tier costs Spotify more than the advertising revenue it generates and makes Spotify unprofitable. While the labels may choose to lower rates ahead of any IPO, especially if they have shares in Spotify, they may also choose, after the contract ends, to return the rates to previous levels or demand that Spotify match the rates for Apple Music. This makes an independent Spotify vulnerable in a way that Apple Music or Amazon isn’t.

It looks like Pandora etc. will be taken over or fail.