
A New Spotify Initiative Makes the Big Record Labels Nervous - cookscar
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/business/media/spotify-music-industry-record-labels.html
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tiernano
Have always wondered what it would take for an Apple, Microsoft or google (or
Spotify with more money) to buy one of either the music big three or even
movie studios? Apple certinaty has the money, as do google and Microsoft...
would doing this even make sense? Would it make a difference in music or movie
licensing?

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ezrast
Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon have all broken into TV/film production after being
a distributor first, which is interesting since Amazon in particular has the
capital and strategy to buy their way into a market (see: Twitch, Whole Foods)
but opted to start from scratch here.

That jump seems harder to make with music, since artists don't typically sign
exclusive distribution deals the way TV producers do (popular songs get played
on every radio station, TV shows stick to one network at a time) so being a
distributor doesn't give as much of a competitive advantage. Additionally, the
article indicates that the big music labels prohibit Spotify, and probably
other distributors, from getting too competitive with them.

On the other hand, Microsoft really wants people to pay more attention to the
Xbox's multimedia capabilities and is probably less fettered by such
agreements. I could see them pushing exclusive content as a strategic move,
perhaps spinning off some IP from their games division.

