

The Major Labels Are Trying to Sell Spotify for $10 Billion, Sources Say - balbaugh
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/06/11/major-labels-trying-sell-spotify-10-billion-sources-say

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mullingitover
Pretty sure the labels are giving Spotify sweetheart licensing deals right now
to boost a business in which they're a stakeholder, but once they're not
invested in the business they have every incentive to put the screws to the
new owner by jacking up licensing fees. I've heard that Hulu is the same kind
of deal.

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x0x0
Google offered perhaps $4B for hulu, predicated on long term, and perhaps
exclusive, licensing [1] (this doesn't mention a price; I seem to remember
reading it at the time but can't find a link). The content owners said no,
which gives away the whole game -- wait a couple years, then take the screws
to the owners for licensing deals.

[1] [http://allthingsd.com/20110906/google-goes-big-with-its-
hulu...](http://allthingsd.com/20110906/google-goes-big-with-its-hulu-bid/)

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mbesto
IIRC Fred Wilson completely devalued Hulu (like 0 value) stating "it has no
rights to any of it's content". Can't find the source at the moment. Anyone
know?

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gtCameron
Replace "labels" with "networks," and "Spotify" with "Hulu," and we've read
this story 100 times. It hasn't really ever worked out for them.

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dageshi
Can anyone think of a company with deep enough pockets to afford $10b that
would actually want Spotify?

Because there doesn't seem to be an obvious fit to me.

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lsh123
Amazon just launched their own music service. I can easily see someone like
Microsoft trying to jump in and buy Spotify to create their own version.

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bicknergseng
They have had their own version for years in
[http://www.xbox.com/music](http://www.xbox.com/music).

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freehunter
In fact, Microsoft was one of the first major players in the streaming
subscription market. Before Google Play Music Pass, before Spotify, there was
the Zune Pass. It was a sweeter deal back then, $10/mo for all you can eat and
you got $10 in credit for songs every month that you could keep even after you
cancelled your subscription. Basically pre-pay for 10 songs every month and
you get the entire streaming catalog.

Rhapsody was the only competitor at the time that I knew of. The Zune Pass
service didn't really catch on because, well... you needed a Zune.

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zequel
$14.99/mo, though at one time I was offered $100/year, should gave grabbed it.
The credit plan was discontinued and only the $10/mo for streaming/no credits
is currently offered as an xbox music pass. I was grandfathered in and still
receive the monthly credits to this day. Usually it's a scramble at the end of
the month to use the credits since they don't roll over. Overall, it's a good
deal though. Bit clunky though since you can stream music using the latest
clients (HTML, xbox, ios) but must use old Zune software to purchase it.

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d0mme
Spotify will just be pure shit after that when it comes true. Flooding people
with unnecessary ads and pushing their own artists, will fail this app.

My cancellation of subscription and removal of this app as well.

