The week ahead, 1-5 February: FTSE heavyweights front up to third lockdown January 31, 2021 After a turbulent opening to 2021, with new Covid-19 lockdowns around the world, spats over “vaccine nationalism”, and chaos on both Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, a slew of FTSE heavyweights are set to update the market in what will be a crunch week for London’s indices. Despite a strong opening week, the FTSE 100 [...]
Screenshot: Is it time for a music streaming reshuffle? January 22, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Elon Musk’s personal keyboard warrior **Music streaming royalties strike a bum note **The BBC screw turns again Media Moment of the Week Elon Musk is no stranger to social media spats. His indiscretions on Twitter have moved stock markets, led to a highly-publicised defamation suit and landed him [...]
Spotify dancing on air as premium subscribers revenue beats expectations October 29, 2020 Spotify said the number of paid subscribers signing on for its ad-free music streaming service beat expectations in the third quarter.
Music to the ears: How the music industry has been revived by the digital age March 31, 2020 A lot has changed in the music industry from the position it found itself in 20 years ago. In 1999, with Westlife, Fatboy Slim and Britney Spears at the top of the charts, global music revenues peaked at more than $39bn. A decade later, the emergence of digital technology and file sharing had brought about a dramatic [...]
Spotify boosts subscribers amid surge in podcast listening February 5, 2020 Spotify today reported a sharp growth in subscriber numbers as the music streaming giant cashed in on its recent investment in podcasts. The Swedish firm boosted its monthly active users to 271m in the four quarter, up 31 per cent year on year, with paid subscribers up 29 per cent to 124m. Total revenue for [...]
Spotify to suspend political ads in 2020 December 28, 2019 Music streaming service Spotify has said it will pause selling political advertising in early 2020. The world’s most popular music subscription service, which according to latest figures has 141m users listen to its ad-supported platform, said the pause would include its original and exclusive podcasts. It comes as campaigns for the presidential election set for [...]
Don’t cross the streams: Netflix to make series about the rise of Spotify December 11, 2019 As the streaming wars heat up, media firms are increasingly looking to get ahead of their rivals. But now it appears Netflix may be willing to bury the hatchet – by producing a series about its audio streaming rival Spotify. Netflix today said it will air an untitled scripted show that documents the rise of [...]
Spotify finance boss behind streaming giant’s direct listing steps down October 28, 2019 The Spotify finance director who masterminded the streaming giant’s unorthodox stock market float is stepping down from the company. Chief financial officer Barry McCarthy will retire in January and will be replaced by Paul Vogel, who is currently the firm’s head of investor relations. Read more: Spotify fails to hit the right note as subscriber [...]
DEBATE: Will owning status symbols become a thing of the past? October 8, 2019 Can we really foresee a time when owning status symbols will be a thing of the past? YES, says Mark Davis, co-founder and creative director of property branding agency me&dave. It’s already happening. The way we live is changing, as are the things we care about, and this is affecting our attitudes to the old [...]
Spotify fails to hit the right note as subscriber numbers miss expectations July 31, 2019 Spotify’s subscriber growth hit the lower end of its guidance in the second quarter, sending shares down in pre-market trading. The music streaming platform said it now has 108m premium subscribers, up 30 per cent on the year before. Read more: Music streaming firm Roxi plans London float as it looks to take on Spotify [...]