Spotify has 100 million subscribers, 30 million are paid listeners

Streaming music service Spotify revealed it has 100 million subscribers, 30 million of which pay for the service to enjoy ad-free music and the ability to save songs and playlists on a mobile device.

Despite its market dominance, Spotify reflects the delicate nature of running a streaming music service. According to Reuters, "Spotify, founded in 2006, pays more than 80 percent of its revenue to record labels and artists and has not yet shown a profit as it spends to grow internationally. Last year, it made an operating loss of 184.5 million euros ($209 million), widening from 165.1 million in 2014."

Apple Music, which competest directly with Spotify, announced last week that it had 15 million subscribers. Apple offers no free tier past a three month trial period.

Source: Reuters via Appleinsider

Spotify links now show up as 30-second clips on Twitter

You can say it’s a long time coming but finally, it’s here. Twitter is extending its Audio Cards feature to Spotify. It’s been almost a year since the feature came out and SoundCloud was the service of choice then. Now, for Spotify tracks you tweet, the link will also have a 30-second preview of the song. It can even show up in the curated Moments feed. You’ll be able to see these Audio Cards on the website as well as Android and iOS apps. Most of the tracks already show up this way but Twitter says the full rollout will be done in around one week.

Source: Twitter | Via: Engadget

Spotify lost US$194 million last year

Streaming music service Spotify has lost US$194 million in 2015, which is considered the biggest loss for the company. But it’s not all bad news for them as that is just a bit over what they lost in 2015 and their overall revenue rose to US$2.18 billion. This means it has been able to slow its losses while boosting revenue, a development Spotify needs as players like Apple and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) entered the streaming service market.

It is looking good for them but there are still some areas for concern, according to Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. He emailed Mashable saying that content costs for Spotify are still quite high. They send about 80 percent of its revenue to the recording industry. And they are still incurring losses. “Their operating and net losses were both bigger in 2015 than 2015, and that’s a bad sign for future profitability,” Dawson said. And they are spending rather aggressively on things like staffing, public relations, and consultants.

Source: Mashable

Spotify to venture into videos

Not wanting Apple Music to creep up on them, Spotify announced they’ll be debuting original video series on its platform. There will be 12 new shows with actors like Tim Robbins and Def Jam Records co-founder Russell Simmons. These music-related series can range from a few minutes long to 15 minutes and won’t be kept behind a paywall, meaning free and paying users will have access to them. One of the new shows is called Landmark and will be focusing on a “significant moment in music history.” Spotify has already shot two episodes for this show, one focuses on the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds and the other is on Metallica.

While they are releasing music-related video content now, the streaming service plans a “phase two” where they’ll focus on comedy and animation series that will be geared towards the young audience of Spotify. According to Spotify’s Content Partnerships Head Tom Calderone, music will always be a priority for them but they know their users want more from them. “We have to figure out a second act, and I think it will come out of video,” Calderone said. “The idea is to make sure users know they can come here for something other than playlists.”

Source: 9to5Mac