

Spotify Raises $250 Million, Valued Above $4 Billion - stevenj
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304791704579212152163448852-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj

======
joeconway
I find myself torn with Spotify. I _really_ love the product and company and
probably use it at a minimum 5 hours a day every single day. However I really
wish artists actually earnt money from it.

[http://lowerdens.tumblr.com/post/34308869231/on-spotify-
and-...](http://lowerdens.tumblr.com/post/34308869231/on-spotify-and-music-
consumption)

~~~
evv
If you really listen 5 hours a day, Spotify pays nearly 4x for your music as
you pay to them. (calculated with 300hrs/mo, 3.5min/song, and $.0075/song)

Good thing they have so much VC money to keep the lights on for a while.

~~~
joeconway
Maybe they could offer a tiered subscription model wherein heavy users pay
more?

------
madsushi
Spotify makes an amazing product. I went from spending hundreds a year on CDs
and MP3s to just paying their subscription fee. It's like Netflix for music,
except they actually have EVERYTHING you want and it's there the minute it
comes out in stores.

~~~
samolang
I love Spotify, but they don't have EVERYTHING. Most notably they're missing
The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

~~~
makmanalp
And Tool. I think it's a conscious decision on part of those bands /
rightsholders since they know that fans will go buy their music anyway, so
they don't have to settle for the cheap stream fees.

------
wil421
Spotify needs to fix their android app I have been having major problems on my
S4 recently. I am about to jump ship.

I can see how they can be worth 4 billion but how can snapchat be worth almost
as much.

------
cylinder
Sirius XM is valued at $22 billion; I am not very bullish on their business
model long-term. I would say Spotify has a brighter future.

~~~
Yhippa
I am subscribed to SiriusXM and Spotify. The reason I still have the SiriusXM
subscription is because of their DJs which are presently much better than any
of the music discovery functionality of Pandora, iTunes Radio, or whatever. If
someone can come up with a recommendation engine that would knock that out of
the park, I can see SiriusXM being done.

------
joelle
I happily pay $9 bucks a month for spotify. It's one bill I'm not bummed out
to pay each month. I get at least that much value out of it - probably more.

Love that they're gettin' after it.

~~~
logicallee
Not only do you get more _value_ out of it - even Spotify's _cost_ is more
than they're charging! From the article:

> Spotify's losses have also widened amid expensive licensing agreements and
> hefty costs related to expansion into a bevy of new markets.

------
AhtiK
I am disappointed that the most expensive package (Premium) that was
advertised for offline usage does not allow putting the music to iPod/mp3
players.

They do advertise that you can sync your music with iPod but they fail to
communicate that you can NOT put Spotify music on it.

Spotify client works as an iPod sync client but syncs ONLY the mp3 files you
have downloaded from other sources. So my only option is to take the music
from Spotify to my training&walks by carrying an Android or iOS device. But
those are way bigger than ipod nano etc.

~~~
johansch
I think you have misunderstood things.

There are two different ways of listening to Spotify on an iOS device

a) iPod sync, like you mention - only your local mp3 files

b) via the Spotify client, online or offline. see e.g.
[http://blog.laptopmag.com/people-follow-
spotify](http://blog.laptopmag.com/people-follow-spotify)

~~~
AhtiK
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. My issue is that in order to listen to Spotify
songs offline users still needs a Spotify client. Whenever they advertise
iPod/mp3 player sync one obviously thinks that one can transfer the music to a
regular iPod. For me this is misleading. (1) But yes, I should have read
[https://support.spotify.com/us/learn-
more/guides/#!/article/...](https://support.spotify.com/us/learn-
more/guides/#!/article/How-to-sync-iPod-with-Spotify) first. They do warn
about it.

Yes, iOS supports also iPod sync for local mp3 files in addition to Spotify
client but it's a rather useless feature for most. There is no clear reason
why iPod sync in Spotify is necessary at all, it is confusing the offering as
it has no relevance to the music that Spotify as a service offers.

(1) [https://www.spotify.com/us/#premium](https://www.spotify.com/us/#premium)
Listen on all your devices Download music & listen offline

~~~
johansch
I think they just added the local mp3 sync feature to avoid having to use the
horrid iTunes client for that. Agree it's a bit out of place, unless you are a
very particular kind of user.

------
ChikkaChiChi
Spotify routinely loses licensing and rips music out of my playlists.

Case in point: They lost several artists on "The Great Gatsby" soundtrack less
than a week after it was released. It was just gone one day as if it never
existed.

I moved to Google Music so that I knew when I needed to buy a song to add it
to a playlist or I could simply purchase from Amazon and upload it. Playlists
stay intact, and I don't have to worry about a transfer after the fact if I
reformat or switch phones.

Spotify had a shot.

~~~
chatmasta
You could just use Spotify and buy the songs it doesn't have on iTunes.
Spotify imports your iTunes library.

~~~
ChikkaChiChi
I don't use iTunes. Honestly I did think that would be a great feature, but
being able to import what I already do own has been fantastic.

------
ChikkaChiChi
I dropped Spotify in favor of Google Music because I could upload additional
content I've purchased elsewhere and have it integrate in tightly with my
playlists.

Spotify doe

~~~
mdellabitta
Also, Google Music works a hell of a lot better on Android and Linux than
Spotify ever did... I just wish you could keep Google from crapping free
tracks all over your library.

~~~
mkaziz
Does GM have a free tier? That's why I've been sticking to spotify.

~~~
nathcd
Their free tier is uploading your own 20,000 songs and being able to access
that from any device with your Google account. The only way to have access to
their "All Access" catalog is to be a paid subscriber. Unfortunately there's
no free tier with access to their full streaming catalog. Which I find a
little strange, since Google's forte is targeted advertising.

------
jypepin
I don't know about real music lovers and underground people, artsy whatever
you can be with music, but as a normal music person, listening to music at
work, on the public transportation and at home, I just love spotify, and it's
one of the rare product I pay for;

It makes it so easy to share playlists with friends, find music (almost
everything) and discover new things, it seems perfect for the normal person
who listens to music.

I'm glad they raised that and hope they'll do good use of it :)

------
trendoid
Although its not available in India yet, it was trivial to figure out how to
use it in countries where its unavailable. One of the best UIs you will ever
see in a music app. My movement from one place to other is seamless. Their
algorithm which recommends new songs based on my listening history has worked
out brilliantly for me and I am consistently discovering new good artists.

------
icpmacdo
And somehow still not available in Canada...

~~~
Shebanator
Blame Canada!

[http://static2.fjcdn.com/comments/I+m+american+we+always+bla...](http://static2.fjcdn.com/comments/I+m+american+we+always+blame+Canada+_cce759cacbd20ad1150f8f730be3cb41.jpg)

------
EA
What if every person that heard a song over the radio had to pay $0.0001 per
listen?

If a wired music mass distribution system existed before wireless broadcasting
(AM/FM), wouldn't the whole business model of the music industry be different?

------
majani
This thread was in the top 5 on the homepage just minutes ago, and now it's
plummeting like nothing I've ever seen before. Cases of heavy handed
moderation like these make me doubt the integrity of this forum.

