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manhattanboy

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2007
960
370
In ur GF's bed, Oh no he didn't!
Labels should charge Spotify the same as Apple. If they go under their clients will just go to one of the other services.
Its never that simple. Just think that people buying the same car are not charged the same price, same thing here.

I hope spotify sticks around as neither Apple nor Google really care that much about the streaming music business or its users.
 
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chriskerrigan

macrumors newbie
Aug 22, 2016
15
8
Just because Apple has the "deep pockets" to pay labels or artists more for their content doesn't mean they're being unfair or doing anything wrong, at least in my opinion. That's sort of the idea behind a free market. No one is forcing you to use Apple Music, you have other alternatives on iOS and Android for that matter.
 

manhattanboy

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2007
960
370
In ur GF's bed, Oh no he didn't!
I wonder if Spotify will be better for Samsung than Milk Music?
Milk was not popular to begin with. Samsung just did not grow it. What Samsung really needs to release is a well-designed music app like they used to have in Android's early days that links to all the free music available on servers in countries like China. Forget paying for this stuff.
 
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TC03

macrumors 65816
Aug 17, 2008
1,272
356
I liked the service and the app and the UI of Spotify, but I was lured away by Google Play Music, a 4 month free trial period and YouTube Red. Clearly the major companies like Google and Apple are putting a big hurt on Spotify. I wonder if Spotify will be around in 2-3 years being that they're being squeezed from all sides and not making a profit at all.
Please note:
- Spotify has more paying subscribers than Apple or Google
- Even though Spotify is not profitable, their upside is still huge

Also, the role of 'record labels' is changing. Their revance is shrinking and that will effect market dynamics.
 

deany

macrumors 68030
Sep 16, 2012
2,873
2,086
North Wales
Still no one can even given me a slight clue on how many subscribers "Google Play Music" have?? (my streaming music choice for my iPhone 6 SONOS etc).
I remember everyone saying 'apple have so many credit cards on iTunes even with 10% sign up they will have many millions of apple music subscribers.
Fair play 12 months on they have - a lot - 15,000,000 v 30,000,000 Spotify

But hold on if having a 'device' might influence the uptake of the streaming service hasn't android got 80+% market share so on those figurers Google Play Music must have between 15 and 30 million ie 2nd place AT LEAST?
Does anyone know? why is google so cagey with the subscriber figures?
cheers
 

chriskerrigan

macrumors newbie
Aug 22, 2016
15
8
I liked the service and the app and the UI of Spotify, but I was lured away by Google Play Music, a 4 month free trial period and YouTube Red. Clearly the major companies like Google and Apple are putting a big hurt on Spotify. I wonder if Spotify will be around in 2-3 years being that they're being squeezed from all sides and not making a profit at all.

I really would be surprised if Spotify isn't bought out by someone within the next few years.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,152
19,720
I liked the service and the app and the UI of Spotify, but I was lured away by Google Play Music, a 4 month free trial period and YouTube Red. Clearly the major companies like Google and Apple are putting a big hurt on Spotify. I wonder if Spotify will be around in 2-3 years being that they're being squeezed from all sides and not making a profit at all.
I'm afraid they might not be. These music companies need to realize that they need to play ball or Apple and Google will have all the control, which isn't very competitive and ends up worse for them in the long run.
 
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LordVic

Cancelled
Sep 7, 2011
5,938
12,458
Sorry Spotify. This is business. Any business is free to negotiate contracts as they wish.

you can't afford the same contract that Apple negotiated? try to negotiate your own, but don't blame some other company for offering to pay more than you're willing. The market sets the value
 

thisisnotmyname

macrumors 68020
Oct 22, 2014
2,438
5,251
known but velocity indeterminate
Come on Spotify, play fair. You're taking a huge cut out of the labels profits just to use your platform to reach their audience. That's monopolistic and uncompetitive behavior. You really need to reduce that to something more reasonable, say 30%. After all, you only provide a way for a label to bring their product to the consumer and you have the largest share of the streaming music market. Play fair Spotify.

Edit: they could reduce their share to 15% after the first year, that would be ever fairer-er.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
Please note:
- Spotify has more paying subscribers than Apple or Google
- Even though Spotify is not profitable, their upside is still huge

Also, the role of 'record labels' is changing. Their revance is shrinking and that will effect market dynamics.
Do you feel that it will be enough to help Spotify stay solvent and relevant in the market?
 
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Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,665
1,250
The Cool Part of CA, USA
The article says Apple gives more to the label, not to the artist. It doesn't necessarily mean the artists get to see more out of this deal as their contracts are decided by the label in regards to how much they'll get per stream of their song.
It does not, and they may not; that's going to depend entirely on what the individual labels have worked out with artists, and probably varies. It's quite possible, however, that the artists get the same fraction of whatever gross the label receives from a streaming service, in which case they'd get very slightly more from Apple than Spotify currently. Regardless, the artist is pretty unlikely to get paid more if the label is making less.

I don't like the idea of Spotify being in some deep waters, because I feel their service is superior. Large library, they've been around for a while, and their app/interface is really easy to use.
From a consumer perspective, you prefer Spotify's product to Apple's, but since they're apparently having trouble making it profitable at current rates with current levels of service, and it's not unrealistic to assume that eventually all streaming services will be paying about the same amount to labels/artists, the longer-term question would be "Are you willing to stick with Spotify even if their price is increased to compensate for whatever it is in their business model that's causing them to loose money?"

The answer for you might well be yes, but that leaves the broader question of "If Spotify eventually ends up paying the same amount as Apple for content and they raise prices to the point that they can actually make money on their business, will they have enough customers to stay in business?"

Admittedly, UI decisions (which seems to be your primary reason for preferring Spotify) aren't necessarily a cost-affecting part of a business model, but the ultimate question for Spotify is the universal issue in business--it's easy to give customers a superior product at a low price if you're losing money, but doing so while making enough profit to stay in business is the challenge.
 
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LordVic

Cancelled
Sep 7, 2011
5,938
12,458
Apple will probably somehow be sued for this, even though they're paying the publishers more. It will be deemed "bad for the consumer" and the government will investigate it for being anti-trust since they have more negotiating power or some such B.S.

it will come down to how the deals were made.

if Apple made a single 1 on 1 deal with music industry companies independantly, that paid enough for the companies to sign, but had no other influencing factors, than Apple did nothing wrong.

they chose the value they were willing to pay, and the music companies agreed. This is now the new value of that music

Spotify can go negotiate with them 1 on 1 as well. they can even agree to lower rates if the music companies want.

Now, the DoJ would get involved if Apple included in their contracts that nobody could have better deals than them, or more specifically like the e-book scandal, communicated with each of the players and colluded so that the entire industry would price identically (thats collusion and illegal)
 

T-R-S

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2010
455
280
Silicon Valley
Apple will probably somehow be sued for this, even though they're paying the publishers more. It will be deemed "bad for the consumer" and the government will investigate it for being anti-trust since they have more negotiating power or some such B.S.

Nope if Apple is paying more that's a business decision that only helps musician and copyright holders in the end it's called free enterprise and is hardly antitrust - Antirust would be if Apple did not allow a Spotify app on iPhones
 

LordQ

Suspended
Sep 22, 2012
3,582
5,653
I have Spotify premium and have not listened/seen one single ad. Out of interest is YouTube dead to you?
Yep, you can pay for Spotify Premium but if I am going to do so, I'd rather go for the option that suits my needs, which would be Apple Music.

And I am trying to kill off YouTube from my needs, yes.
 

Armandodj

macrumors member
Sep 22, 2015
78
68
Land O Lakes, FL
I think Apple it's trying to bring down Spotify, to tell you the truth I still like Spotify way much better than Apple Music. With Spotify you have the choice of better quality sound than Apple Music, even the interface in Spotfy it's way better. I have done the test with both services and Spotify sounds it's way much better, solid great sound. Apple Music it's way behind and at the end of the month I will cut ties with Apple Music not happy at all.
 
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