The licensing deals Spotify has with the record labels and publishers, on which its business depends, leave it with precious little control over its own gross margin, making it difficult to translate revenue growth into commensurate earnings growth. With a series of recent moves by the company, however, it is becoming clearer just how extensive and systematic Spotify’s efforts are — and how far it is prepared to go — to try to claw back whatever measure of control it can wherever it can.
Source: Spotify Works the Margins