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You really framed it perfectly.

I can't understand how Spotify will inevitably become profitable. Even with X million more subscribers, it doesn't appear they can turn a profit after many years. They're not like Amazon, who has other services and products to offer, which help offset operating losses from their online retail segment.

I think Spotify will be left with no choice but to be bought out, or will become obsolete when some future music service offering trumps steaming (like CD's did to cassettes, iTunes did to CD's, and streaming did to iTunes).

I would love nothing more than for Apple to acquire Spotify (I know, most of you will cringe). Apple's UI and integration with Spotify's discovery algorithms would be unstoppable. Plus, Apple has cash to blow.

And without competition Apple would raise the price to 19.99€ cuz they only care about quality and not money of course. No thank you
 
That means they're making like $700m every month then, huh? daaaaang.
EDIT: I wasn't thinking about needing to pay the artist fees, so nevermind.
 
They could have 500 Million subs and it means nothing if they cant turn a profit. They don't even have enough money to make a decent iPad app that supports multitasking/split screen. That alone for me would never convince me to use spotify. They definitely offer a great service but Apple has the home court advantage with a better app cross platform and integration with all their devices/music libraries.

Especially with a possible IPO coming soon?Money is king. No profit means death.
 
I can't understand how Spotify will inevitably become profitable. Even with X million more subscribers, it doesn't appear they can turn a profit after many years. .

They are probably profitable in mature markets, like Sweden where they started, but they want to expand and it costs money (advertisments, new servers, signing contracts, add songs etc).

It took Facebook eight years before they became profitable. They also went for growth.
 
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The reason (IMO) they won't do the IPO is because the breakdown of those subscribers include hacks, students, etc. at a reduced payment.
 
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Until Apple Music stops trying to spam hip-hop/rap down my throat as endlessly as they do their iOS updates then I'll stick to anything else.
Well summed up.
Apple seems to push music I have zero interest in.

Spotify on the other hand makes it easy to find new stuff and after a couple years' use their algorithms know my tastes pretty well.

I just don't understand why Apple supporters have such a "Spotify has to die!!!!" mindset.

Takes me back to the MS v Apple wars of the 90s.
 
They just got hit with a $1.6 billion copyright lawsuit so they file IPO to protect it from killing them. Still sure to hurt their value.
 
Not really a fair comparison at all. Apple has been in the online music business for 15 years now. They didn't need to ask for anybody to fill in any information to sign up - Apple already has your name, address, credit card, and email address. They didn't need to ask you to download an app. Literally all you had to do was update to a newer version of iOS (which was automatically downloaded and older versions would nag you to install), launch the stock music app, and tap to have your trial begin. If you forgot about it, you'd be automatically converted into a paying subscriber. And they had a massive and widely covered media event to launch the service, followed by a massive campaign ad.

In contrast, Spotify needs to convince you to find the app, then download it, then set up an account, then fill in all your payment info to upgrade to a paying account. And Spotify doesn't have media events (or if they do, they're not widely covered), and the ad campaign hasn't been anywhere near as massive.
There hasn't been a single Apple Music ad broadcasted on any channel (TV and Internet) in Poland.
 
Why the direct listing instead of IPO, because they just can't afford the fees? Is that fishy? Not meant to be a rhetorical question, just asking.

They just got hit with a $1.6 billion lawsuit. May be to get out there quick and get a cash infusion, should they need to pay this fine. They recently settled a $200 million lawsuit for the same thing (stealing music and not paying royalties).
 
“Ma .... did people way back in the day actually OWN the music they paid for and have TOTAL UNRESTRICTED access to their music files?”

“Honey.... that was a long time ago.”
 
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I have had both for two years. I can't decide which one to cancel. Apple Music has better integration, but I like the Spotify app more.

I wish Apple had bought Spotify 3 years ago. They could probably have got it for five billions back then. Apple are sitting on over $200 billion. They got to use it for something.

And wasn't Apple about having the best products.

Spotify isn't profitable. They lost more than $500 million last year and over $600 million the year before. The chances they'll be able to satisfy shareholders is very very slim.

Spotify already pays artists less than any other music service (almost 1/2 what Apple Music does). While they may be the biggest and be able to use that to their advantage when bargaining, they're at a point where artists and music companies could turn them down should they ask for even lower rates. If that happens, they'll continue to bleed money and die in the next couple years.
 
Spotify isn't profitable. They lost more than $500 million last year and over $600 million the year before. The chances they'll be able to satisfy shareholders is very very slim.

Spotify already pays artists less than any other music service (almost 1/2 what Apple Music does). While they may be the biggest and be able to use that to their advantage when bargaining, they're at a point where artists and music companies could turn them down should they ask for even lower rates. If that happens, they'll continue to bleed money and die in the next couple years.
 
I just don't understand why Apple supporters have such a "Spotify has to die!!!!" mindset.

Because Apple opted to become a competitor. We're like a bunch of robots. "We" used to love Spotify and similar apps BEFORE Apple decided to become a competitor. Then, all of the others became crap, not because they made themselves worse than before (they've all generally improved) but only because Apple stepped into their pool.

"We" used to love Google Maps. Then Apple rampaged against Google Maps and rolled out the much inferior first version of Apple Maps. Google Maps has been significantly bashed ever since, not because the program has gotten worse (in fact, it's had many improvements) but only because Apple stepped into their pool.

It's always this way. Apple could bottle soda, and all established soda makers would suddenly be cast as worst tasting poison ever. Apple could box cookies and <most popular cookies> would be tasteless wastes of money. I suspect if Apple would bottle up Air, about 30% of this group would eventually smother to death by accidentally running out but refusing to breathe that inferior abomination that is non-Apple air. ;)

Yes, I'm joking... but (you know it's) barely joking for some of these guys.
 
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Better integration with what, the AW? Other than that...
How about existing libraries? I have 5,000 songs I've had for 10-20 years that would go "poof" on Spotify since they have no official easy way to integrate into existing libraries.

Also considering tens of millions own Apple watches, yes no Apple Watch integration is important.
 
Spotify isn't profitable. They lost more than $500 million last year and over $600 million the year before. The chances they'll be able to satisfy shareholders is very very slim.

Spotify already pays artists less than any other music service (almost 1/2 what Apple Music does). While they may be the biggest and be able to use that to their advantage when bargaining, they're at a point where artists and music companies could turn them down should they ask for even lower rates. If that happens, they'll continue to bleed money and die in the next couple years.

Not sure what post you are replying too. See my previous answer regarding profitability.

If Apple would have bought Spotify, they would have owned the music streaming market in many countries. It's not hard to make profits if you are the only provider. Now Apple needs to compete.
 
They are only that high because I got an email every 6 days telling me it’s 99 cents for 3 months promo... So yes technically they are paid subscribers, but they will drop back down in 3 months.
 
Until Apple Music stops trying to spam hip-hop/rap down my throat as endlessly as they do their iOS updates then I'll stick to anything else.

I hear you. Despite curating favourite artists and genres to classical, Dadrock, metal and some jazz, New continues to believe I want copious amounts of hip hop, dance and current chart pop. For You is better but not great.

Despite this I still love AM, and many of their Essential, composer/performer/artist and third party curated playlists are fantastic.
 
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Switched from Spotify to AM, after a year back to Spotify. My biggest complain is (besides of course iTunes) the limited supported platforms. I can use Spotify on almost any device you can think of (Smart TVs, Consoles, Alexa , Google Home, etc.), can control the music on other devices with my smartphone and I got the freedom to use my Spotify account on friends devices. Also the Spotify client for Mac is IMO far superior to iTunes (in terms of both overall speed and comfort).
 
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