Spotify has been seen to add subscribers at a greater pace than Apple, and one particular reason for this might the fact that Spotify’s focus is singularly on music. Spotify has seen the addition of 20 million paid subscribers, while Apple music has taken more than a year and a half to achieve the same progress. As of June, Apple music has 27 million subscribers, while Spotify has 60 million.
Spotify’s ability to go head and toe against one of the World’s most powerful companies has to be applauded, especially when you consider the fact that Apple pays big bucks to for exclusive access to early albums. Not only this, but Apple music offers a three-month free trial, and comes pre-installed on the iPhone, yet, it still seems that Spotify is the streaming service that music lovers enjoy the most.
Spotify is now warming up for what’s called ‘direct listening’. In such a move, the company intends to go public without an IPO. It means that now insiders, and not actually the company will be selling the stocks. This is a move that no doubt has divided opinions greatly, as many companies dread the IPO process, which involves bankers rounding up institutional investors and determining a price for its debut, it is an opportunity to raise money for the company.
Of course, by missing this, Spotify will potentially be missing out on hundreds of millions in proceeds which will be coming from IPO, but a secondary offering could be arranged to raise substantial amounts of cash at a later date.
Otherwise, there have been several other product developments that have made Spotify the giant that it is today. Spotify introduced us to discover weekly, a move that proved to be so popular that other giants such as Soundcloud and Apple Music actually tried to copy the move. What this basically is that Spotify weekly updates its personalized playlist, which means that music lovers can quite easily find not only new songs but also new artists to listen.
Another move which seems to have made Spotify more popular is the fact that it recruits Hold-Out Artists. Spotify was initially taunted for not giving enough royalties to musicians, this has changed drastically, as the payout has grown to a significant amount. The cash means that Spotify becomes a must-have distribution channel if artists want a big hit record.
The partnership with Google has certainly had a positive impact on Spotify. While Amazon Alexa preferences its own Amazon Prime Music service, Spotify is one of the premier partners for Google Home. It’s already more popular for dedicated music streaming than fellow partners Pandora and Google Music, and recently Google Home began allowing control of Spotify’s free ad-supported service. The partnership with Google Home will become even more important once Apple starts shipping its own HomePod smart speaker.
