Technically speaking, this is possible: Like Spotify, Pandora was a loss-making publicly traded company when, in February, it was swallowed by satellite radio behemoth SiriusXM in a $3.5 billion deal.

will have myriad corporate interests in a multitude of verticals. It also launched in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) last November, where around 380 million people are currently resisting its charms.įor this reason, many industry insiders suggest, Spotify will eventually, inevitably, end up under the ownership of a larger corporation that - just like the parents of Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc. For example, in the first half of this year, Spotify added just 12 million subscribers globally, despite launching in India in February, where its potential addressable audience stands at 1.3 billion. There are a couple of early warning signs in this regard. It has spent more than $400 million this year already on acquiring podcast content and distribution companies.) (Oh, and podcasts as covered in this column last year, Spotify is also banking its future on the talk-radio-esque format. Say what you like about Spotify - and plenty in the music business do - but at the end of the day, its business lives or dies on the financial appeal of music itself. Unlike Apple Music, Tencent Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music, its biggest global rivals, Spotify’s music service doesn’t drive revenues in other, wildly lucrative areas (for Apple, device sales for Amazon, e-store sales and Prime memberships etc.). With 108 million Premium subscribers and 232 million total active users worldwide, Spotify also happens to be the biggest paid-for streaming service on the planet. The company, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange last year, is the only “pure-play” major music-streaming company in existence. And, yes, Spotify raised $1 billion in convertible debt three years ago, via the likes of TPG, Dragoneer, and Goldman Sachs, having previously attracted investment from Coca-Cola and Hong Kong mogul Li Ka-shing (and his $28 billion personal fortune).Īnd yet, relative to the rest of 2019’s blockbuster music-streaming pack, Spotify remains something of a plucky underdog. Yes, the $26 billion-valued streaming service is partially owned by a raft of corporate giants, from Tencent (9.2 percent) to Baillie Gifford (9.7), TCV (5.3) and Tiger Global (7.1). Spotify is proud of its independent status.

Spotify co founder