Spotify Raises $250 Million, Valued Above $4 Billion

[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-...

[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.

[mbesto]

> However I really wish artists actually earnt money from it.

How so? Why do you get to decide how much the distribution model gets for delivering a good service to you? Without them, the product/service never arrives. I'm not saying I disagree with you, but I think just because the assumption that "mp3 reproduction is cheap" doesn't mean there are other forces (marketing for example) at work here. Lest we forget these services cannot be cheaply made in a factory overseas.

[_zeo8]

Just a few ideas: Let artists sell mp3's (or other formats), and give them a large percentage / Let artists sell merchandising / Let fans pay to became VIP members of an artist to get special stuff / Let artists promote concerts to followers (and maybe sell tickets) / Allow donations directly to artists.

[guard-of-terra]

Why don't you donate/crowdfund and sew that tear?

[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.

[mcone]

Honestly, I still think Rdio has a better product.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[akx]

There's an option to show the unavailable songs in lists anyway, even if the song isn't playable for whichever licensing reason.

[ZoF]

When music in my playlists loses licensing it just gets greyed out until I purchase it(expected functionality); yours actually disappeared from the playlist entirely?

[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.

[madsushi]

Spotify premium lets you do this, including sync to mobile.

[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...

[majani]

It is, if you Google hard enough ;-)

[a3voices]

Funny how Bitcoins are available in Canada before Spotify.

[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.