Spotify

Spotify, Musixmatch End Lyrics Partnership Over Unfavorable Terms

June 1, 2016By rightstech

Lyrics disappeared suddenly from Spotify last Friday; and now we know the reason: the partnership between the music streamer and lyrics provider Musixmatch has ended. The partnership was terminated when the two companies could not come to terms over payments, according to sources with knowledge of the deal.

Musixmatch also suggested that unfavorable terms are behind the split. “We regret the end of this partnership, but we must keep to our product and our users above all else. We will not allow anybody to ignore our business model'” said Max Ciociola, CEO & Founder of Musixmatch. “We want to focus on what is right for us, to protect all of you, our users. We don’t want to run the risk of Musixmatch no longer existing… What we want is to create a stand alone experience with a healthy business model that allows us, to support ourselves and our rights owners.”

Source: Spotify, Musixmatch End Lyrics Partnership Over Unfavorable Terms: “We will not allow anybody to ignore our business model” – hypebot

The Playlist That’s Helping Spotify Win The Streaming Music Battle

June 1, 2016By rightstech

The quest to give people what they didn’t even know they want has been the holy grail for streaming services, and Spotify succeeded almost by accident.

Discover Weekly actually began as a Hack Week project, but it was the technology they had from acquiring “music intelligence” firm The Echo Nest which allowed the idea to flourish. What’s genius about Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists is its personalization. It’s capable of delivering content from artists the listener hasn’t heard but should like based on their established tastes.

Source: The Playlist That’s Helping Spotify Win The Streaming Music Battle – Vocativ

Spotify Cuts Dubset Deal To Add Millions Of Mixes – hypebot

May 25, 2016By rightstech

Dubset Media announced today that it has reached an agreement with Spotify to use its MixBANK distribution platform. The deal makes it possible for DJs to upload and legally stream their mixes and single track remixes. In addition, the new agreement is expected to enable Spotify listeners to stream radio shows and other user generated mixes that have not been previously legally available to music fans.

The announcement was made today at the International Music Summit in Ibiza, Spain.

Source: Spotify Cuts Dubset Deal To Add Millions Of Mixes – hypebot

Spotify financials raise questions about streaming economics

May 24, 2016By rightstech

The concerning thing here is the margins involved: sales and marketing costs alone sucked up more than three quarters of Spotify’s €321.7m gross profit. In a market where Spotify’s key rivals are now Apple, Google/YouTube and Amazon – tech giants with hefty cash reserves and built-in marketing platforms to take advantage of – Spotify’s marketing costs are only going to increase.

Bright spots? Spotify’s subscription income grew by 78% in 2015 to €1.74bn, as it ended the year with 28 million subscribers. Its advertising revenues grew faster though: up 98.2% to €195.8m, although ads remain just over 10% of Spotify’s overall turnover compared to nearly 90% for subscriptions. That 10-90 ratio of ads-to-subscriptions hasn’t changed since 2013.

Source: Spotify financials raise questions about streaming economics

Spotify lost more money than ever last year — which is great news for Spotify

May 24, 2016By rightstech

Filings show that Spotify, based in Sweden and the U.K., generated revenue of $2.12 billion last year, up about 80 percent from the $1.18 billion it brought in the prior year (all prices in the story converted from euros to dollars at the exchange rate from December 31, 2015). Losses, meanwhile, hit $188.7 million — but that number was only up 6.7 percent from the previous year’s total of $176.9 million.

That’s a much, much better performance than 2014, when Spotify’s losses ballooned by 289 percent, and its revenue was only up 45 percent.

Source: Spotify lost more money than ever last year — which is great news for Spotify – Recode

David Lowery Legal Team Files Motion Addressing Spotify’s Forthcoming Publishing Settlement

April 20, 2016By admin

Attorneys representing David Lowery in his lawsuit against Spotify want to know what the music streaming service has been telling songwriters. In a motion filed this week in the Central District Court of California, Lowery and the other three plaintiffs have asked the judge for “corrective action to prevent misrepresentations to putative class members” in pitches to songwriters by Spotify and the National Music Publishers’ Association related to their settlement agreement.’

The new filing comes down to the plaintiffs’ lack of access to settlement agreement between Spotify and the NMPA. Lowery’s attorneys state that their requests to see the reported agreement have been rebuffed, leading to concerns the eventual class members are being given false statements about their litigation rights.

They believe the court has “both the authority and the duty to review and impose reasonable restrictions” on communications with potential class members to prevent Spotify from making misleading or inaccurate statements that would inform the songwriters about the nature of the litigation and their options for protecting their rights.

Source: Billboard

Spotify Inks “No Copyright Claim” Royalty Deal with Music Publishers

March 18, 2016By admin

money-protest-power-fist-biz-2015-billboard-650 Spotify has agreed to do a better job at allowing music publishers and songwriters to claim and receive royalties from the streaming service. However there’s a caveat: to strike the settlement deal with Spotify, copyright holders cannot make an infringement claim against the company.

In recent months, Spotify has faced a number of lawsuits from musicians who have challenged the Sweden-based firm’s alleged failure to licence artists’ works before making them available for streaming.

On Thursday, US trade body the National Music Publishers’ Association said that the settlement deal it had struck with Spotify represented a “landmark industry agreement.”

Source: Ars Technica UK