Spotify
Spotify tries to go mainstream, launches splashy ad campaign | Internet & Media
From Spotify's first TV ad campaign Spotify today is rolling out a major advertising blitz, including a series of TV spots as the company hopes to reach a mass audience in the U.S. The campaign, called "For Music" and created by Droga5 , will debut tonight during NBC's "The Voice" and will have Web and social media components. Spotify's push comes at an important juncture for the company, which now has 24 million active users and 6 million paid subscribers . Spotify, which offers both on-demand music and Internet radio, said in December that it had passed 1 million paid subscribers in the U.S . after less than a year and a half in the market.
Spotify Announces 4m Paying Subscribers,15m Active sers
On the same day Spotify rolled out mobile radio for Android devices , the music-streaming giant has now announced some interesting new figures. At today’s Global Business Summit on Creative Content in London, Spotify’s Chief Content Officer and Managing Director of Spotify North America, Ken Parks, announced that Spotify has over 15m active users, with 4m paying subscribers. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of these figures from around the world, but it’s probably fair to say that Spotify’s launch in the US last summer has had a significant part to play in this recent growth spurt. And it also represents a growth of 1m paying subscribers since January, when the company reported 3m paying members – though curiously, this was said to constitute one fifth of its active users, which means it would’ve had 15m active users then too.
At an event in New York City today, Spotify announced a new Discover section to help users find new music on the service, a Collection section for holding all your music, and Follow, a place to keep up to date on celebrities. The new features will roll out in beta soon, and will roll out to all devices in early 2013. Spotify CEO and Founder Daniel Ek admitted that users say Spotify is great when you know what you want to listen to, but not so good when you don't — the genesis of the company's new features. Some examples of content boxes on the new Discover page are "You listen to David Guetta and Skrillex.
Spotify debuts new Discovery engine, Collection, and Follow, which lets users follow friends and celebrities
A lot of people confuse Spotify’s streaming music service with Pandora’s streaming music service. Now they’re going to be a lot more confused. In a way that’s good for Spotify and a problem for Pandora.
Spotify Launches Web Radio Service, Competes Directly With Pandora - Peter Kafka - Media
Facebook Account No Longer Needed for Spotify in Germany
One of the more notable knock-on effects of Facebook’s deep integration with Spotify last September (besides making music more social) was that new users were required to have a Facebook account to sign-up for the service. If you visited the sign-up page in the wake of the new partnership, you’d read: “You need a Facebook account to register for Spotify. If you have an account, just log in below to register. If you don’t have a Facebook account, get one by clicking the ‘create an account’ link below.”
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News Spotify is in the process of raising a new round of financing that would value the popular online music service at up to $4 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter, in the latest eye-popping Internet company valuation. Spotify so far is on track to raise about $220 million. Goldman Sachs is to lead the round with about $100 million, or about half of the round, two of these people added.
Spotify Is Raising Millions in a Deal That Would Value It at $4 Billion
It’s Finally Here: Spotify Launches Its Long-Awaited iPad App
Today, Spotify is releasing its long-awaited iPad app — finally giving Apple tablet users, who also have a Spotify Premium (paid) subscription, a native route to accessing its 17-million song catalog. It will be worth seeing whether pent-up demand for the app will translate into a rush of downloads and usage, in the same way that Spotify saw around its (also long-awaited) U.S. launch last year . On the back of that, the U.S. has become Spotify’s fastest-growing market, with the company projected to make $889 million in revenues this year on a global user base of 13 million people and counting. In an interview last month , Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek noted that the company’s entire focus is on growth.Spotify VP of marketing Angela Watts Spotify's vice president of marketing, Angela Watts, marks a "watershed" for the music industry and hints at big news in 2012 from the digital streaming service. • What will 2011 be remembered for? It's been a watershed year for the music industry. The line between music access and ownership is blurring now that you can listen to whatever music you want, wherever you are. We've seen a big psychological shift with the realisation that you don't need to own music, that your musical universe can be blown wide open by not only having all of your tunes at your fingertips, but that of your friends, your favourite artist, that person you met backpacking in 2004, haven't seen in three years but can see in real time that they're loving a bit of Baxter Dury.
Forecast for 2012: Spotify hails 'watershed' for music industry | Media
Lancé le 14 juillet aux Etats-Unis, le service de musique en streaming Spotify connaît un démarrage mitigé selon All Things D . Un bilan toutefois raisonnable à ce stade puisque selon des sources internes, Spotify totaliserait déjà 1,4 million d’utilisateurs pour la version gratuite. Côté abonnés, Spotify compterait, selon cette même source, 175.000 clients. C’est surtout le taux de conversion des utilisateurs du gratuit vers le payant qui serait pour le moment source de déception. Avec un taux de 12,5%, le niveau est en effet inférieur au taux d’abonnés payants en Europe (15%) - il est inférieur à 10% pour le français Deezer. Un taux de conversion gratuit/payant de 12,5%
Spotify : 1,4 million d’utilisateurs aux Etats-Unis, pour 175.000 abonnés
Spotify Ready to Open API For Developers - Peter Kafka - Media
Hey! Remember last week, when Spotify sent out that cryptic announcement about a press conference they’re holding this week, and said they’re headed in a “new direction”? Here’s what the music service is likely to announce: The ability to let third-party developers tap into Spotify’s music library and make it available to their own users — as long as those users are already paying Spotify for a premium account. That’s what Spotify has been discussing with developers for much of this fall. My educated guess is that the company intends to unveil its plans at its Wednesday event in New York.Spotify has been going from strength to strength since it launched stateside back in July, and since its deep integration with Facebook last month. Indeed, Spotify is now among one of the most recognizable digital brands – but it too was once a young startup. An email from Napster Co-founder Sean Parker to Spotify’s Daniel Ek has surfaced from a couple of years back, when the music streaming service was in its infancy.