Spotify

Wie Quartz berichtet, hat Spotify begonnen mit Investmentbanken über einen möglichen Börsengang zu sprechen, der noch im Herbst diesen Jahres stattfinden könnte:

The popular music-streaming company has participated in informal chats with some of the investment banks likely to fight for a role in a potential IPO, sources familiar with the process said. The six-year-old service may start holding formal meetings as early as next month in anticipation of an offering in autumn. (Though the timeline for a possible IPO could change for a number of reasons, including unfavorable market conditions.)

Ein Börsengang würde notwendiges Geld in die Kriegskassen von Spotify spülen. Interessant wäre ein Börssengang aber vor allem für Musiker und andere aus der Branche, weil Spotify damit der erste On-Demand-Streaming-Dienst wäre, der konkrete, detaillierte Zahlen über das eigene Geschäft offenlegen muss.… Weiterlesen

Bekanntlich existieren auf Spotify 4 Millionen ungespielte Songs. Das neue Werkzeug Forgotify macht diese ungespielten Songs sichtbar.

The Atlantic:

Forgotify is built upon a database that the trio created to crawl Spotify’s API for pieces with a play count of zero. Once a song has been played, it disappears from the site, rendering it oddly reminiscent of an old, archival audio cassette which, once played, may never play again. Playing it destroys it. (Except, of course, in the case of Forgotify, the songs still live on in Spotify proper.)

Vor allem ältere Musik wird von Spotify-Nutzern verhältnismäßig seltener entdeckt:

According to Jordan, a lot of Spotify’s undiscovered tracks are older: Newer music tends to get at least a few plays as it posts, but the backlog from decades past just sits on Spotify’s digital shelves, accumulating dust.

Spotify hat die Zeitbegrenzung für das kostenfreie, werbefinanzierte Musikhören für Web und Desktop abgeschafft. Das heißt also, dass man nun nicht nur auf Mobilgeräten wie neulich eingeführt sondern auch auf dem Desktop, so lang wie man möchte werbefinanziert Musik hören kann. Mit Desktop-Client und Web sogar On-Demand. Möglich wird das auch dank der letzten massiven Finanzierungsrunde:

The nice thing about raising $250 million is that it lets you offer your customers services that few competitors can match. Spotify, which is riding high after completing a massive fundraising round in November, said today that it has dropped all limits on streaming ad-supported music on the web. Previously, Spotify limited you to a certain number of hours a month after a 6-month trial period. As of today, the company has totally removed the caps, in a move that has implications for competitors like Beats Music and Rdio.

Spotify hat in einer neuen Finanzierungsrunde 250 Millionen US-Dollar bei einer Bewertung von 4 Milliarden US-Dollar erhalten. Das Wall Street Journal setzt die Bewertung und die Umsätze von Spotify ins Verhältnis zu Pandora:

Spotify’s valuation is beginning to approach the market capitalization of Pandora, which went public in 2011 and is currently valued at $5.7 billion.

Spotify generated more revenue last year—€434.7 million, or about $585 million—compared with Pandora’s $427 million.

Losses at both companies, however, have widened as robust listener growth has brought with it higher royalty costs for playing songs.

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Spotify pulls in most of its revenue from premium subscriptions—more than 6 million pay up to $10 a month—and the rest from advertisers. It also has more than 24 million active free users.