Tag Archives: spotify

iHeart Media & Entertainment

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by TALIA LEVY and VALERIE POWELL
iheartmedia-04

[16] iHeartMedia Company Logo

iHeartMedia, Inc
200 East Base Road
San Antonio, Texas

 

HISTORY
    iHeart Media was originally founded in San Antonio, Texas under the name Clear Channel Communications. The company was founded by Lowry Mays and B.J. McCombs in 1972. In 2008, the company became private by a leveraged buyout through Bain Capital, LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
    iHeartMedia has the widest reach in America for any radio or television outlet with an audience of over a quarter of a billion listeners each month. The company currently covers 150 of the U.S. markets with 858 broadcast radio stations. iHeartMedia delivers a variety of content including music, talk shows, news, and sports through broadcast stations, satellite, online, via smartphones and via live shows. iHeartRadio currently has 92 million registered users with a year-over-year growth of 22% with an increase of 8% in total listening hours. As of September 30th, cumulative upgrades and downloads have reached a new record of 1.1 billion [4].

 

KEY EXECUTIVES

Bob Pittman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Bob Pittman                         [12] Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

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Wendy Goldberg       [13] Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer

 

 

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William Eccleshare [15] Chairman and CEO, Clear Channel International

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Richard J. Dressler [14] President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer

 

 

 

FINIANCIAL 
    For the second quarter of 2016, iHeartMedia’s loss widened to $278.89 million due to billboard sales in Turkey that expanded the ongoing debt $56.6 million. The loss was more than five times the amount of 2015’s second quarter loss of $54.66 million [3]. Even though there was a large loss in the second quarter, the company is still generating revenue in the third quarter of 2016 for a total of $857.1 million. Due to a growth in network business and the Presidential Election, digital advertising and broadcast radio primarily drove the growth in revenue of $10.2 million (1.2%) from the previous year’s third quarter revenue [4].
    The increase in revenue allows iHeart to stay on top of their current debt of $20.78 billion as of June 30th, 2016. The large debt is mainly due to a buyout in 2008 by two Boston private-equity firms, allowing them to gain 70% of the iHeartMedia Company. Debtwire senior credit analyst, Seth Crystall, explains that iHeart is a “powerful brand” and will continue to increase revenue to make up from their current losses by the transformation of their listeners to their mobile app [3].
[17]

[17] Singer Taylor Swift singing at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.

iHEART MUSIC FESTIVALS
    The iHeart Music Festival Tour is iHeartRadio’s biggest live musical event, generating a large income for the company, with a portion of the ticket profits going towards the Ryan Seacrest Foundation. iHeartMedia’s President of National Programming Group, Tom Poleman, says, “Fans wait all year to hear who will be playing this tour and we’re thrilled to announce an impressive lineup” [11]. The concerts are held in major cities throughout the country by the iHeartRadio stations in those areas. The Jingle Ball Tour is iHeartRadio’s biggest musical event, generating a large income for the company. The tour is sponsored by Capital One, which allows card holders to gain early access to tickets before going to the general public [7].
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[18] Bon Jovi Photographed performing at an iHeartRadio live concert.

    The live iHeart Radio concerts are a mutually beneficially event for both the artists involved and iHeartMedia. For example, most recently the artist The Weekend celebrated the release of his new album Starboy in Toronto by headlining the iHeartRadio Canada Jingle Ball. Thirty minutes of his live set was broadcasted on the iHeartRadio App, along with 112 of iHeart Media’s radio stations including KISS in Los Angeles and Z100 in New York [1]. The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball in Toronto also included performances by major artists such as Niall Horan, The Chainsmokers, and Alessia Cara.

[23] iHeartRadio celebrated One Direction’s 2013 album Midnight Memories with a special release party.

 

iHEART GLOBALLY
    Recently, iHeartRadio expanded into Canada with the collaboration of North America’s fastest growing digital audio service, Bell Media [2]. Canadians now have instant access to stations and to free streaming channels via iOS, Android apps, and at iHeartRadio.ca. iHeartRadio Canada uses content from Bell Media, which has over 105 licensed radio stations and 100 streaming channels [2]. With the expansion into Canada, iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball will now be present in Toronto.
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[21] iHeartMedia’s Fiesta Latina is a part of the company’s Hispanic initiative.

    This part quarter iHeart partnered with Hispanic radio legend Enrique Santos, to create a new Hispanic initiative to develop new programming content for iHeartMedia across their various platforms. This new initiative recognizes the increasing size of the the U.S. Hispanic community that are both English and Spanish speakers, as well as utilizes Santos’ popular reputation within the Latino community [8].
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[22] iHeart partnered with Telemundo to air the program.

    Building off of this new initiative, just this past November iHeart celebrated the best in Latin Music at the iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina. They partnered with Telemundo to air the exclusive TV special and streamed the event live on Telemundo.com. Telemundo is an American-Spanish language television network owned by Comcast through NBCUniversal [10]. The event broadcasted live on iHeartMedia Spanish-Pop, Tropical, regional Mexican and Spanish Adult Hit radio stations all across the country [8].

 

THE FUTURE
    This coming January, iHeartMedia will be launching a new On-Demand music streaming service, that will put them amongst competition of services like Spotify and  Apple Music. The iHeartRadio All Access service will offer its subscribers unlimited on-demand listing to over 30 million songs. They will also offer a cheaper option, iHeartRadio Plus, which will gives its subscribers the ability to instantly replay songs they heard on iHeartRadio stations, through the app. According to iHeartRadio,the company has not yet decided how to price the two new services. However, $9.99 a month has become an industry standard for full on-demand subscriptions services. iHeartMedia earns most of its revenue through on-air advertisements, which they still will continue to air, despite the new revenue from the subscription service.
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[19] iHeart will be unveiling 2 different On-Demand services. iHeartRadio Plus and iHeartRadio All Access.

    iHeartMedia is not the only major radio based company making the switch, Pandora is creating its own on-demand based product estimated to cost $4.99 a month in the near future [6]. According to iHeart, iHeart All Access will “include a full on demand music collection experience – but one still tied directly to radio.” the company said. When listeners hear a song on the radio that they like, for the first time ever they will be able to replay that song or even save it directly to their playlist.

 

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[20] iHeart Radio’s On-Demand service is expected to launch in January 2017.

Sources:

[1] Bliss, Karen. “The Weeknd’s Album Release Day Live Set Broadcast on IHeartRadio.”Billboard. Billboard Music, 26 Nov. 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

[2] Dupuis, Renee. “IHeartRadio Now Available in Canada: Free Streaming Service Brings  Canadians Biggest and Best Music Experience.” Bell Media. Bell Media Canada, 6 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

[3] Hendricks, David. “IHeartMedia’s Second-quarter Loss Widens to $278.9 Million.” San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio Express-News, 4 Aug. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

[4] IHeartMedia, Inc. IHEARTMEDIA, INC. REPORTS RESULTS FOR THIRD QUARTER 2016. Rep. IHeartMedia, INC., 9 Nov. 2016. Web.

[5] Karp, Hannah. “IHeartMedia to Launch On-Demand Music Service.” The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 23 Sept. 2016. Web. 15 Oct. 2016.

[6] Lovelace, Berkeley, Jr. “Pandora CEO on On-demand Services: We’re in the Perfect Position.” CNBC. CNBC, 14 Sept. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

[7] McAlone, Nathan. “The Biggest Radio Powerhouse in the US Just Took Aim at Apple and Spotify with a New Service.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 23 Sept. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

[8] Ross, Kevin. “IHeartMedia, Inc. Reports Financial Results for the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2016.” Radio Facts. N.p., 10 Nov. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

[9] Stine, Randy. “IHeartMedia Shows Revenue Growth in Q3.” Radio World. Radio World, 10 Nov. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

[10] Telemundo. “IHeartRadio Fiesta Latina 2016.” Telemundo. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

[11] Vitucci, Danielle. “IHeartMedia Rings in the Holiday Season with the Return of Its Iconic 2016 National “iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour Presented by Capital One”.” IHeartMedia Rings in the Holiday Season with the Return of Its Iconic 2016 National “iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour Presented by Capital One” | Business Wire. BusinessWire, 11 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

[12] Bob Pittman. iHeartMedia, Inc. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[13] Wendy Goldberg.  iHeartMedia, Inc. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[14] Richard J. Dressler. iHeartMedia, Inc. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[15] William Eccleshare. iHeartMedia, Inc. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[16] iHeartMedia. RadioFacts. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[17] iHeartMedia. Yahoo News. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[18] iHeartMedia. VectorNetworks. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[19] iHeartMedia. Hollywood.com. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[20] iHeartMedia. Business Wire. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[21] iHeartMedia. Aaarena.com. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[22]  iHeartMedia. iHeart.com. Retrieved: November 28th 2016

[23] One Direction Last First Kiss IHeartRadio Album Release Party. Perf. One Direction. Youtube, 3 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

Spotify by Daniel Rakow

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Executives 

                       Daniel Elk                                                            Martin Lorenzton

Unknown

                      Martin Lorentzon - Spotify. Photo: thomasengstrom.com

History

Spotify was developed in 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden.  It was founded by the former CTO of Stardoll, Daniel Elk and the co-founder of TradeDoubler, Martin Lorentzon.  They officially launched the music streaming service in October of 2008 for paid subscribers and in 2009 they made their service available for free subscriptions.  The free subscriptions opened up the service to a bigger audience while slightly hindering their income.  In 2011 Spotify crossed over into the United States market and also introduced the Spotify App for devices. (1)

More About Spotify

Since 2011, Spotify has solidified its spot as one of the top music streaming services along with Apple Music and Tidal.  Today, Spotify features curated playlists that are made by their employees for paid subscribers.  They have radio stations that allow the user to discover new music based on artists that are similar to the ones the user listens to.  Along with that, they have a huge library of music consisting of 30 million songs.  Their premium service allows users to access all of their songs and provides weekly curated playlists called Discover Weekly.  Currently, they have over 75 million users with 30 million of those users being paid subscribers. (2)

Potential Change of Location 

Flag_of_Sweden.svg

(Swedish Flag)

As of recent, Spotify has been hinting at a change of location for its headquarters.  Since they started the company, they have been based in Stockholm, Sweden.  However, recent circumstances have lead them to reconsider their choice to remain in their hometown. As Elk wrote in an open letter that he posted online, “We love Sweden and believe that this is basically the best environment for us. But at the same time we cannot magically remove the political obstacles.  Thousands of Spotify jobs could go to the U.S instead of Sweden.”  Spotify is frustrated with the Swedish governments inability to let businesses in their country grow.  To start, Spotify believes the housing situation needs to be revisited.  It’s extremely difficult to rent apartments in Stockholm because such a large amount are controlled by housing associations.  It could take over 10 years to get a rental apartment which makes it extremely difficult for Spotify to bring in foreign talent. Another area Spotify argues needs change is their education system.  They argue that the country doesn’t focus at their schools enough on technology.  This leads to a lack of programmers for them to hire. The lack of knowledge causes them to have to train more workers, which could be avoided.  Lastly, Spotify hopes to change Sweden’s stock options.  The country’s rules don’t allow Spotify to grant their employees stock options which would attract brighter employees. (6) (7)

Competition

In the last month Spotify has had to deal with more competition than ever.  Not only have they been going head to head with Apple’s streaming service Apple Music, they have also seen a few new players enter the streaming world. To start, Apple has signed exclusive contracts with big artists.  These artists’ new albums debut on Apple Music and take a few weeks before they are available on Spotify.  Artists like Drake have Spotify users growing impatient when he drops new content.  He has 24 million monthly listeners and is the 7th most played artist on Spotify.  This could hurt them eventually if it doesn’t change.  Jay-Z music streaming service Tidal is another competitor with Spotify.  In early February Rihanna took to Tidal to release her new album Anti.  While it is now available on Spotify, for months it had users converting to Jay-z’s service to access it.  Similarly, Kanye West exclusively released his new album The Life of Pablo on Tidal.   However, The Life Of Pablo was recently made available on Spotify as well.  Soundcloud, in the last month, has also entered the subscription space.  They created Soundcloud Go which will also directly compete with Spotify.  Even with all these competing services, Spotify has a loyal user base of over 75 million people that will be hard to take away from them. (8)

Spotify x Billboard 

billboard-music

(Billboard)

On April 21 Billboard announced it’s partnership with Spotify for 2016.  This is a huge win for Spotify over Apple Music.  Billboard will bring all of its users to Spotify instead of Apple Music.  Billboard’s charts are turning to Spotify to make it easier for its users to access today’s hits by streaming songs directly from their weekly charts.  Now, when viewing the Hot 100 or Billboard 200 the user is able to listen to the songs they are analyzing.  There are 30 second previews directly next to the song on the chart that also give the option to stream the full version on Spotify.  Billboard will also be publishing 3 new spotify driven charts on billboard.com.  One will be a 30 song Velocity Chart which will include the 30 most trending songs on Spotify.  The next will have a Viral 50 chart which will consist of the 50 most shared songs across social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Lastly there will be a Velocity Chart with 30 songs with 5 songs for each decade (1960-2000).  To take a look at the Billboard Hot 100 with Spotify streaming click here. (9)

Money

Spotify recently has raised over 1 billion dollars in debt financing.  This is a substantial amount especially for a company that is financially stable.  It is no doubt that Spotify now has money to spend but the question is: what will Spotify decide to do with all this extra money? forbes.com went into detail with ways that Spotify is planning on improving. Firstly, they are expected to get into the video space. Apple and Tidal already both have video content on their service.  Spotify, being their number one competitor, will definitely start exploring music videos, behind the scenes, artist episodes, tour videos, and live footage. One major area they will have to work on is their payment rates.  Their current rate per stream is .004.  This rate tends to anger artists because they believe they are not being compensated for their art.  This has lead artists like Taylor Swift and Adele to not allow their catalog of music to be included on their streaming service.  With the extra money Spotify is planning to start working in these areas. (10)

Sources

(1) Streatfield, Brooke. Rise of a Tech Giant: The History of Spotify. The Telegraph.  Retrieved: April 25, 2016

(2) Person, Adam Pasick. The Magic That Makes Spotify’s Discover Weekly Playlists so Damn Good. Quartz. Retrieved: April 25, 2016

(3) Bertoni, Steven.  Spotify’s Daniel Elk: The Most Important Man In Music.  Forbes.  Retrieved: April 24, 2016

(4) Sloan, Paul.  The Future of Music.  CNET.  Retrieved: April 24, 2016

(5) Spotify.  Vulcan Post.  Retrieved: April 25, 2015

(6) McIntrye, Hugh.  Spotify May Soon Leave Sweden.  Forbes.  Retrieved: April 23, 2016

(7) Swedish Flag.  Eduniversal.  Retrieved: April 23, 2016

(8) Apple Music’s Biggest Swipe at Spotify Yet.  Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved: April 24, 2016

(9) Billboard Staff.  Billboard Announces Spotify as Exclusive Playback Partner of The Charts. Billboard.  Retrieved: April 24, 2015

(10) McIntrye, Hugh.  What Can Spotify Do With The $1 Billion It Just Raised?  Forbes.  Retrieved: April 24, 2015

Singleton, Micah.  Spotify Hits 30 million Subscribers.  The Verge.  Retrieved: April 25, 2016

 

Pandora Radio

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by RICO PEDRAZA

Pandora Logo

Pandora Press Logo (courtesy of Pandora Pressroom) [1]

Pandora App Logo

Pandora App Logo (courtesy of Pandora Pressroom) [2]

Headquarters
2101 Webster Street
16th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 451-4100
http://www.pandora.com

Company Overview

Pandora is currently the largest online music streaming and internet radio company in the world with over 81.5 million users as of December 31st, 2014(3).  The company is an online music streaming service that provides its users with automated music recommendations based upon a song, artist, album, or genre being searched.   This automation is powered by Pandora’s service – the Music Genome Project – which gives human curated music recommendations for each individual.  The company currently operates under two payment tiers.  A free tier allowing unlimited internet radio music streaming with restrictions on the number of song skips allowed per day, audio quality, and is fueled by advertisements between songs.  Alternatively the paid tier “Pandora One” ($4.99 per month or $54.89 per year) (4) offers ad-free listening, higher audio quality on desktop listening, and a higher number of daily song skips allowed.

Key Executives

Brief Company History

Founded by Tim Westergren in 2000 the company has grown to an immaculate 81.5 million user base(3), trumping all other streaming services with Spotify being the closest with 60 million users(8).  Based out of Oakland, California, Pandora has had a quick rise in its 15 years earning $920.8 million in total revenue in 2014(9).  Over the years Pandora has changed multiple business models, due to new unexpected variable costs in today’s online  music streaming industry.  These obstacles included the changing climate around artist payouts per stream in the music industry, increased licensing costs through SoundExchange(10) etc. etc.  Pandora has been able to take these hurdles in stride, shifting its focus into brand and fan interaction as well as entering the live entertainment space over the past few years.

Interface

The screenshot below shows the typical Pandora user interface with basic music controlling functions present.

User Profile Screenshot

User Profile Screenshot (14)

Devices / Platforms

Today Pandora is available across virtually all platforms; including car radio systems, almost all mobile devices, online computer streaming, and available on some smart televisions.  Additionally Apple recently announced that Pandora will officially be one of the first apps available on the fist operating system of their new product, the Apple Watch(11).  The Apple Watch is Apple’s newest device that incorporates a “smart watch” device with the interface of an iPhone. It is set to be released on April 24th, 2015.

Apple Watch Promotional Photo (Courtesy of Billboard)

Apple Watch Promotional Photo [15]
(Courtesy of Billboard)

Financials

On December 31st, 2014 Pandora released their end of the year Financial reports.  The report showed a trend that Pandora’s year-over-year mobile and local advertising revenue both grew from 2013.  Local advertising revenue was $152.9 million (155% increase from 2013), and mobile revenue alone accounted for $712 million (a large portion of Pandora’s total $920.8 million 2013 total revenue) which also was a 58% increase from 2013(9).

Pandora accredits this success to the fact that 2014 was the highest year of mobile monetization in company history.  Pandora’s 2015 Q1 financial report will be reported publicly on April 24th, 2015.

Competition

Today Pandora’s primary competitors include Spotify, iHeart Media, iTunes Radio, and Sirius XM to name a few.  Although each of these services differ slightly, Pandora is still the leader in total users of all of these streaming services(3).

Additionally, two new companies have been in the music streaming service news recently.  The first being Jay-Z’s newly launched music streaming service Tidal, and the second being Apple’s currently unnamed and soon to launch streaming service.  Tidal launched March 30th, 2015(12) following a $56 million acquisition by artist Jay-Z of the parent-company Aspiro(13).  Tidal is unique because unlike Pandora and Spotify, Tidal has two paid monthly subscription tiers with no option of free listening for the user.  With only 500,000 users at launch it is unclear if Tidal will be a future competitor.

At the Tidal launch on March 30th, 2015 artists Alicia Keys, Arcade Fire, Beyonce, Calvin Harris, Christ Martin of Coldplay, Daft Punk, Deadmau5, Jack White, Jason Aldean, J.Cole, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and Usher signing the company's constitution.

Various A list artists at the Tidal launch event on March 30th, 2015 in New York City. (Courtesy of New York Post) [16]

In August of 2015, Apple acquired Beats Music for $404 million dollars(17).  Currently there has been much speculation as to what Apple is planning to do with their service and when it will launch, however there are a few factors to keep in mind:

  • First the acquisition of Beats Music has brought Apple music taste makers like Jimmi Iovine (former CEO of Interscope Records), Andre “Dr. Dre” Young (founder of Beats Music), and Zane Lowe of BBC Radio 1.  Potential for more human music curation.
  • Secondly, Apple as of 2013 had a user base of 500 million paid users(18), which since has no doubt increased, allowing them to potentially launch a music streaming service with an unprecedented initial user base.

Future

Pandora is in the fortunate position where it is a pioneer of music streaming, in a market becoming oversaturated with competitors.  Pandora sets itself aside by possessing the most users of any of these services, 81.5 million users, and by having a unique streaming service / business model.  With all this said, Pandora recently has begun entering the live entertainment, fan interaction, and brand sponsorships parts of the music industry.

For the 4th year in a row, Pandora has sponsored an event held an event at Austin, TX during the South by Southwest Music Festival.

2014 Pandora Discovery Den admat (courtesy of mxdwn.com)

2014 Pandora Discovery Den admat (courtesy of mxdwn.com) [19]

  Called “The Pandora Discovery Den”, Pandora selected over 35 current notable musicians from the genres of electronic, hip-hop / R&B, and rock. Held over 4 days, Pandora was able to showcase many up and coming artists that are featured and heavily streamed on Pandora.  Each day is a new genre, and all performances were broadcasted live on Pandora’s web & mobile outlets.  This event allowed fan interaction for those attending South by Southwest as well as fan interaction for those who couldn’t attend the fest but lived vicariously through the live broadcast.

Additionally, Pandora continued this fan interaction on January 30th, 2015 Pandora continued its fan interaction by presenting a live stream of Jack White’s sold-out performance at Madison Square Garden.  In anticipation of the live stream Pandora, in conjunction with Jack White’s record label Third Man Records, curated a Jack White digital mixtape that was exclusively available to Pandora users.  The live stream was made available for 72 hours after The Madison Square Garden show, again allowing Pandora fans to vicariously experience the concert(20).  The below clip(21) shows Jordan Klepper interviewing Jack White speaking about his upcoming MSG show; an example of additional content created by Pandora that was  used exclusively during this campaign.

Finally Pandora in early April, in a joint venture with AEG Live’s Concerts West, announced an official tour pre-sale for the Rolling Stone’s upcoming ZIP CODE tour exclusively through Pandora.  Pandora users were given access to pre-sale tickets 4 days before the general sale began on April 13th, 2015(22).  And Pandora again created a digital mixtape of songs hand selected by members of the Rolling Stones themselves.  This campaign was beneficial to both parties, and offered Pandora increased outreach with their fans, establish a relationship with major concert promoter AEG Live, as well as continued their pursuit of the live entertainment market.

All three of these events show the future direction Pandora as a company is currently moving towards.  Pandora will continue the success of their already well established streaming service, while developing the company to include new outlets within their business model.

Sources

 (1) – Pandora Logo – press.pandora.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(2) – Pandora App Logo – press.pandora.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(3) – Pandora User Number – statista.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(4)- Pandora One pricing – pandora.com/one – RT: 4/17/2015

(5) – Brian McAndrews Headshot – rightstartups.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(6) – Tim Westergren Headshot – chicagoideas.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(7) – Sara Clemens Headshot – thedeal.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(8) – Spotify User Number – press.spotify.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(9) – Pandora End of the Year Financial Report 2014 – press.pandora.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(10) – SoundExchange Fees – gigaom.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(11) – Billboard Apple Watch – billboard.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(12) – Tidal Launch – billboard.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(13) – Aspiro Yahoo Finance – yahoo.com/finance – RT: 4/17/2015

(14) – Pandora Screenshot – pandora.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(15) – Billboard Apple Watch Photo – billboard.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(16) – Tidal Signing Photo – nypost.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(17) – Apple Acquisition of Beats – forbes.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(18) – Apple 500 Million Users – appleinsider.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(19) – Pandora SXSW Poster – music.mxdwn.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(20) – Jack White Pandora Press MSG – press.pandora.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(21) – Jack White Pandora MSG 72 Hour Stream – youtube.com – RT: 4/17/2015

(21) – Pandora / AEG Exclusive Presale – press.pandora.com – RT: 4/17/2015

Spotify

Posted on by 
by ERIN SINGLETON

HEADQUARTERS

Spotify AB
Birger Jarlsgatan 61, 10tr
113 56 Stockholm
Sweden
556786-5729
(Research & Development)

Spotify Ltd.
4th Floor
25 Argyll Street
London W1F 7TU
United Kingdom
(Main headquarters)

http://www.spotify.com/

KEY EXECUTIVES [1]

ABOUT 

 Spotify is a digital music streaming service that allows users to create personal playlists and radio stations, browse Spotify-curated playlists, and share music with friends. Users can do this through their mobile devices, tablets, or desktop computers. The service currently has more than 30 million songs registered within its system through licenses with major labels and recording artists [2]. Developed in 2006 by entrepreneurs Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in Stockholm, Sweden, Spotify was created as a response to the illegal downloading of music going on by consumers through piracy sites like Napster [3]. In 2008 the service was launched in Scandinavia, France, the U.K. and Spain; in 2011, it made its way to the U.S [3]. There are currently over 60 million users (15 million of which are paying users,) 1.5 billion playlists, and 20,000 songs added per day [2].

MARKET EXPANSION

Spotify is currently available in 58 markets worldwide, including Brazil, Germany, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Taiwan, Italy, and more [2]. In 2013, Spotify expanded to 8 new locations in its steps towards penetrating Latin America and Asia markets, launching in Mexico, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore [4]. Spotify introduced Canada’s launch in 2014 [5]. Plans to enter Japan are still in the works, and previous plans to enter Russia have been halted due to its unstable economic conditions [6]. As Spotify has continued to expand its availability across the globe, its number of users has greatly increased every year.

 FINANCIALS

Despite industry rumors, Spotify still remains a privately funded company and is not going public anytime soon[7][8]. Spotify is currently close to completing a new round of funding from Goldman Sachs and an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, raising $400 million and putting its value at $8.4 billion [9]. After the deal, Spotify will be worth double the value of its closest competitor, Pandora Music ($3.85 billion), despite having higher net losses than Pandora and less market share (6% versus 31%, respectively) [10]. The deal will also put Spotify at the top ranks of the highest valued privately funded technology companies, along with Square, Dropbox, and Airbnb [11].

BUSINESS MODEL

There are two tiers for Spotify users: ‘freemium,’ a free, ad-supported streaming format, and ‘premium,’ an ad-free streaming subscription for $9.99/month. The premium subscription comes with other perks, including unlimited song skips, offline mode ability, and on-demand mobile access [12]. Additionally, there is a student tier for $4.99/month and a family plan for $5.99/month. Spotify philosophizes that the freemium option will drive users to eventually pay for the better experience [2]. Through these payment options, Spotify has paid $2 billion USD to the music industry, $1 billion of which coming from 2014 alone [2]. 70% of revenues earned are paid out to rights holders in the industry, while Spotify holds onto the remaining 30% [2]. Spotify does not pay ‘per stream,’ but rather through royalty statements that are dependent on the country the artist is being streamed, the number of paid users, the country’s currency value, and the artist’s royalty rate. As a result, ‘per stream’ payouts are typically between $0.006 and $0.0084 [2].

ARTIST BACKLASH

do-no-reuse-taylor-swift-the-beat-bb36-sarah-barlow-billboard-650

Taylor Swift pulled her catalogue off Spotify this fall 2014. Image courtesy of Billboard

With the trending drop of physical sales and digital downloads, there has been heavy debate circulating the music industry involving streaming companies’ payouts. More specifically, there has been criticism from recording artists and songwriters who feel that their ‘art’ is being undervalued and deserves fairer compensation from streaming services. Just this past fall, Taylor Swift pulled her entire catalog off of Spotify in defense of songwriters, saying that she is “not willing to contribute [her] life’s work to an experiment that [she doesn’t] feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music” [13]. Other artists who have called out against the streaming service include Jason Aldean, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Talking Heads’ David Byrne, and others [14]. In response, Ek argues that record labels are to blame since they are the owners of the music and thus the ones distributing it to their artists under their own respective terms [14].

The biggest artist-led backlash against Spotify is the creation of competitive streaming service Tidal, an artist-owned global music and entertainment platform ran by Jay Z, Beyoncé, Deadmau5, Madonna, and other music superstars [15]. To counter artist tensions, Spotify recently rolled out a new feature called Tweet the Beat, which allows users to express their gratitude towards their favorite artists through an interface pop-up asking them to thank the artist via a pre-written tweet [16]. Rihanna is the only artist users have been asked to thank. This experimental feature has been negatively received by Spotify users, who view it as a spam [15]. A Spotify spokesperson says that, “[They’re] always testing new things on our different platforms and to various user groups,” most likely to stick out amongst the competition [15]. However, Tweet the Beat has been rolled back as a result of such critical opinions.

RECENT NEWS

These past few years have been busy ones for Spotify as the company proactively works towards staying ahead of the concentrated streaming market. In January of 2015, Spotify introduced Touch Preview, a “better way to preview any song, album, artist, or playlist” [17]. This feature allows users to gain a “sneak peak” to a song or playlist by holding down a finger to the screen to preview the song instantaneously. If the user likes what they hear, they can save the song with one simple swipe.

In February of 2015, Spotify introduced an update for desktop users, presenting fully integrated lyrics, powered by Musixmatch, as well as an explore option to search popular lyrics from Spotify’s top songs [18]. The desktop update also included easier access to Friend Feed, which allows users to discover what their friends are currently listening to, as well as a revamping of daily viral charts.

 

In March of 2015, Spotify’s PlayStation Music was launched in partnership with Sony Network Entertainment International LLC, making it “easier than ever for gamers to enjoy their favorite tracks whilst playing their favorite games” [19]. Users are able to create their own on-demand soundtracks to their games without interruption to the gaming experience. Just this April 2015, Spotify launched Spotify for Brands, a platform that reveals audience statistics and insights to benefit brands in their endeavor to connect with the younger generations [20].

OVERVIEW

Since its 2006 development and 2008 initial launch, Spotify has demonstrated significant exponential growth over the past 7 years with no sign of slowing down anytime soon. Leading the pack in the digital streaming market, the service is tirelessly working towards providing unique innovations and opportunities for its consumers that one can only expect to continue in the many years to come.

SOURCES

[1] Spotify Biographies, Spotify Press.

[2] Spotify Artists, Spotify Explained.

[3] Forbes, Spotify’s Daniel Ek: The Most Important Man In Music

[4] Chicago Tribune, Spotify Expanding into Asia, Latin America

[5] Spotify Press, Spotify is Live in Canada!

[6] Business Insider, Spotify has cancelled its launch in Russia

[7] Yahoo! Finance, Spotify seeks to hire U.S. filings expert as bankers eye IPO

[8] Yahoo! Finance, Spotify isn’t going public anytime soon

[9] Yahoo! Finance, Spotify Nears New Funding at Valuation of $8.4 Billion

[10] Market Realist, Why Is Spotify’s Valuation More than Double Pandora’s?

[11] Wall Street Journal, The Billion Dollar Startup Club

[12] Pocket-Lint, Spotify free vs Spotify premium: What’s the difference?

[13] Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift’s Label Head Explains Spotify Removal

[14] Rolling Stone, Spotify Founder Fires Back at Taylor Swift

[15] The Telegraph, Stars lead backlist against Spotify with their own music streaming site Tidal

[16] Digital Trends, Spotify Rolls Back ‘Tweet the Beat’ for Rihanna After Back Lash

[17] Spotify Press, Introducing Touch Preview: a better way to preview any song, album, artist, or playlist

[18] Spotify Press, Introducing our latest update for Spotify on desktop

[19] Spotify Press, Soundtrack your game with Spotify on PlayStation Music

[20] Spotify Press, Spotify launches playlist targeting for brands

Pandora

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 by: Andrea Lopez

 

Pandora Image –   [1]

Screen Shot 2014-11-26 at 5.57.34 PM

Pandora App Icon [2]

ADDRESS/CONTACT

2101 Webster Street, 16th Floor                                                                               Oakland, CA 94612

Tel: (510) 451-4100                                                                        http://www.pandora.com/

COMPANY PROFILE
Pandora is a free progressive music service provider that strives to provide a top of the line variety of music experience to its listeners. Through Pandora, people can experience a personalized interactive experience with the music of their choice on their devices at anytime and any place. [3] 

Screen Shot 2014-11-26 at 6.17.56 PM

courtesy of : Human Genome Project – [4]

                                  •

By way of a devised system, better known as “The Human Genome Project,” Pandora has enabled listeners to plant a seed -selecting an artist, song, or genre of their choice that will then generate music of the same genre for the listener. [3] This is all composed through a music taxonomy system created through Pandora, ultimately creating a positive listener experience. [5]

    OPERATING PANDORA

Free to sign up for users, Pandora enables listeners to create up to 100 stations depending on their musical preference. By searching an artist, genre, or song, users can create station that will play only music similar to the item searched. The image below exhibits a user’s profile with their selected stations on the left hand side.

Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 2.58.03 PM

Image of Users Profile [6]

BRIEF HISTORY

Founded in 2000 by Tim Westergren, Pandora is rooted in Oakland, CA where the company opened their first offices [7]. In less than a decade, Pandora had impressively raked up approximately 30 million registered users and earned $40 million in revenues [8].

•

Back in 2009, Pandora opened a new world for their users when they introduced the ad-free radio service for 36 dollars/year, Pandora One. However, between 2009 -2013, Pandora experienced an increase in rising licensing costs to SoundExchange, currently still growing. With these new setbacks, Pandora has now increased their monthly subscription from $3.99 to $4.99. Current subscribers are safe for now with their $3.99 monthly payment, but by 2015, the going rate with be the same across the boards with subscribers [8].    

Since the beginning, Pandora has strived to allow an easy streamline service to its users through its free subscription, and now ad-free subscription, which in 2013 was reported to have reached 72 million monthly listeners. [9]

KEY EXECUTIVES

BrianMcAndrews – Pandora CEO          Courtesy of www.rightstartups.com [10]

Mike Herring – Pandora CFO       Courtesy of www.cnet2.com [11]

Tim Westergren - Pandora Founder Courtesy of: www.kinja-img.com

Tim Westergren-  Pandora Founder Courtesy of: www.kinja-img.com [12] 

 

FINANCIALS

As reported in the SQ Press Release of Financial Results, Pandora reached 218.9 Million dollars in total revenue and is projected to reach 895 Million – 915 Million for the 2014 total yearly revenue [13]. The SQ revenue increased by 38% since the prior year’s SQ revenue results. The suggested increase in revenue is said to have resulted from investments in mobile and local advertising, demonstrated in the 39% advertising revenue increase and the 35% yearly revenue increase in subscriptions [14].

Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 5.30.10 PM
Pandora Financial Revenue Growth from ’12-Q1’14                                                                          Courtesy of www.tctechcrunch2011.com [15]

Pandora’s yearly revenue over a two year span between 2012 and 2014 indicates approximately a 50 million dollar increase. Initially, when Pandora was first launched, they experienced far less competition. As more and more music streaming companies are introduced into the market, Pandora, although still providing service to a plethora of  devoted users, has experienced somewhat of a sluggish increase of revenue despite what was predicted for the company.

COMPETITORS

Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 3.06.14 PM

Graph of Edison Survey Results                      Courtesy of www.marketrealist.com [17]

Over the years, Pandora has grown exponentially as a company and dominated in its listener audience numbers compared to its competitors. Among Pandora’s competitors, including iHeart Radio, Spotify,Google Play All Access, Rhapsody,and Slacker, Pandora still exhibited exceeding results in the Edison Research study taken in March 2014 [16]. iHeart Radio, Pandora’s most prominent competitor reported to have 9% of the listener population, while Pandora ranked in                           at 31% of the listener population. Over 2,000 people were interviewed for the Edison Study with a demographic of individuals raging in ages from 12 +. [18]

Click here to read about Forbes content contributor Amadou Diallo‘s personal opinions when comparing three different music streaming services: iTunes Radio, Pandora And Spotify.

PANDORA PLATFORMS

Pandora is now available in car radio systems, cellular devices, iPads, laptops to even Blu-ray players. This multi faceted, multi-platform side of Pandora allows for so many options for users to stream their music. [19] It was reported in 2009 that Pandora’s 43 million users accessed their accounts on 100 different consumer devices other than a computer [20]. This is simply a number that demonstrates just how widely attainable streaming music is across  different platforms.

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Pandora’s Many Platforms             Photo courtesy of www.gigaom.com     [21]

PANDORA’S POPULARITY

For such a wide scope of listeners in terms of age, Pandora has provided a great service, largely due to the interactive qualities of the site. Not only does Pandora possess the users  profile information about them, the company also takes note of the user’s music preference and times they are actively listening. Through the “thumbs up, thumbs down” buttons on the users profile, further explained at 13:50 of this video, Pandora receives information on media you both like and disliked. [22]

NOW, & WHAT’S AHEAD

Pandora’s great success has not only sustained  its current prosperity, but promises for it’s bright future as well. In the interview conducted at Hivios first ever Radio Ideas Festival in 2013 between Mark Ramsey and Pandora CTO Tom Conrad, the future plans of the company are somewhat touched upon. Not only is Pandora certainly withstanding any threats from competitors today,but the executive board is constantly looking for new ways of improvement. Conrad alludes to Pandora’s hopes and explorations into livening up the interactive aspects of the site. He goes on to explain the possibility of venturing outside the lines of music and comedy and delving into sports entertainment and possibly weather.

Further explained is Pandora’s intentions of understanding their audiences to a higher level. Already Pandora has taken exceptional steps towards fully emerging their users into an interactive world where their music preferences are key, but Tom Conrad foreshadows taking the leaps as Facebook has when it comes to audience fragmentation. This meaning that listeners are divided based on interest. From this, Pandora understands their audience better catering to their needs and wants.

What's Ahead for Pandora? CTO Tom Conrad talks to Mark Ramsey [23] 

 Look Below for question conducted in the interview:

Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 5.43.52 PM

A recent article titled “Will Pandora Survive 2015,”  explains the possible decline of streaming music sites due to the increase in royalty rates. [24] With this possibility, it could be possible for Pandora to steer clear merging with big names in the industry like Apple, and instead conducting business with a small scale radio broadcaster, ultimately conserving revenue. [24]. Although, it is safe to say that with constant new artists, no matter big or small, someone, somewhere desires to be noticed. Music is constantly created, therefore driving the industry.

Sources:

[1] Pandora Company Image, Loadthegame.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[2] Pandora App Icon, Pandoraradioformac.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[3] Pandora Company Profile, Press.Pandora.com, RT: 11/16/2014

[4] Pandora Music Genome Project Photo, Indirest.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[5] About Pandora, Pandora.com, RT: 11/20/2014

[6] Pandora Image Profile, Dailytech.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[7] Pandora Biography, Investor.Pandora.com, RT: 11/17/2014\

[8] The Verge:Pandora Raises Fees, Theverge.com, RT: 11/17/2014

[9] Pandora Radio Dominence, Theverge.com, RT 11/17/2014

[10] Brian McAndrews, Rightstartups.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[11] Mike Herring, Cnet2.com. RT:  11/25/2014

[12] Tim Westegren, Kinja.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[13] Pandora Investing, Investor.Pandora.com, RT: 11/27/2014

[14] Pandora Investing PDF, Investor.pandora.com, RT:11/27/2014

[15] PandoraRevenueImage, tctechcrunch.com, RT: 11/25/2014

[16] Pandora ups subscription price as competition build, washingtonpost.com, RT: 11/30/2104

[17] Graph of Edison Survey Results, marketrealist.com, RT: 11/30/2014

[18] Online Radio Habits, Edisonresearch.com, RT: 11/25/2014

[19] Pandora Radio’s Dominance Built On Big Data Edge, forbes.com, RT: 11/26/2014

[20] Pandora: Now Playing Everywhere, gigaom.com, RT: 11/27/2014

[21] Pandora’s Many Platforms Image, gigaom.com, RT: 11/27/2014

22] Pandora’s Guide to Mobile App Platforms, gigaom.com, RT: 11/27/2014

[23] Interview Video, vimeo.com. RT: 11/30/2014

[24] Will Pandora survive 2015?, qz.com, RT: 11/30/2014

 

http://advertising.pandora.com

Rdio

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rdio-logo

Rdio logo. Photo courtesy of Rdio.

Contact Information [1]
Phone: (415) 763-7211
62 First Street, Suit 500
San Francisco, CA 94105
www.rdio.com

History

Rdio is an online music streaming service based in San Francisco [2]. It was founded in 2010 by Skype co-creator Janus Friis and began entirely as a subscription based music service [2].  While Rdio has been lauded for its design within the technology community, the company has experienced a slower take off the ground [2]. Rdio attempted to become a more holistic entertainment service through its launch of Vdio, a video service, in April of 2013 [2]. However the project was unsuccessful and discontinued just eight months later. Following a series of layoffs, Rdio announced on December 3rd of 2013 that Anthony Bay would be appointed as CEO [3]. Bay was previously global head of video at Amazon [3].

Key Executives [1]

Janus Friis, founder of Rdio. Photo courtesy of Forbes.com

Anthony Bay, Chief Executive Officer of Rdio. Photo courtesy of Patrick T. Fallon.

Carter Adamson, Chief Operating Officer. Photo courtesy of Lien Multimedia

Drew Larner, Vice Chairman and Strategic Advisor. Photo courtesy of fastcocreate.com

Scott Bagby, President of International. Photo courtesy of The Music Void.

Financials

On February 3rd of 2011 Rdio released it had raised $17.5 million worth of funds with a list of investors including Friis, Mangrove Capital Partners, and Skype [4]. Rdio’s biggest deal to date struck on September 16, 2013 when it announced a partnership with Cumulus Media, the second largest radio operator in the US [5]. In exchange for granting Cumulus an estimated 15% equity stake in Pulser Media, Rdio’s parent company, Cumulus will provide Rdio with programming and promotional services valued at $75 million over five years [6]. Although this deal was a trade and brought in no cash for either Rdio or Cumulus, it allowed Rdio the capability to offer a “fermium” subscription model [7]. Cumulus’ sale agents will sell commercial spots and share the ad revenue [7]. Rdio has yet to reveal its subscription numbers, however Spotifiy, its greatest rival, currently has 24 million users with 6 million paying [6].

Current News

Subscription Switch-Ups 
Rdio proved it could adapt to the music streaming landscape after announcing it would offer a free subscription model for users through ad-supported stations this year [7]. It is essentially an Internet radio experience although Rdio still offers its paid subscription options, Web and Unlimited. This coincides with the hope that a freemium model will serve as a gateway for users to sign up for a paying subscription. Web allows full access to computers for $4.99 per month while Unlimited extends to all devices for $9.99 per month [8]. While Rdio has offered family plans since 2011, earlier this month the streaming service prices were lowered to $5 for each additional family member included on the plan (which levels its family plan price with Spotify) [8]. A family of two costs $14.99 per month with $5 for each additional person however if a family is bigger than five, users must pay the full monthly price of $9.99 for any additional members [8].

Taylor Swift Streaming Debacle 

Taylor Swift’s music remains on Rdio despite her Spotify withdrawal. Photo courtesy of Rdio.

Taylor Swift made headlines last month when she pulled all her music from Spotify as she feels they do not fairly compensate music creators and is uncomfortable with the business model [9]. This has brought about questions for the future of music streaming with regard to whether other big name artists will follow suit in pulling their music. Bay has been speaking out in support of Swift and all artist’s choice in how their music is distributed [10]. Due to Swift’s fall out with Spotify, Rdio has been drawing attention to the fact that users still have access to her full catalog of music (with the exception of her most recent album, 1989) through both Rdio’s ad-supported Internet radio and paid subscriptions [10]. Additionally, Rdio currently has 30 million tracks in its library–10 million more than Spotify [11].

Toronto Film Festival Partnership [12]

Ellie Goulding during a Rdio sponsored performance. Photo courtesy of ET Canada.

This past September Rdio was the official music partner for the Toronto International Film Festival. Rdio had a “music hub” at the event with giveaways, listening stations, as well as live music. In fact, Rdio sponsored a free Ellie Goulding concert at Massey Hall. Attendees just needed to visit the “Rdio House” to receive tickets where they could browse through Rdio products and plug into listening stations to listen and browse through Rdio’s library of music. Bay explained the partnership with Toronto was a marketing opportunity to strengthen their presence in Canada.

Roku Launches Rdio App [13]
In August of 2014 Rdio announced plans to launch a new app on Roku. Rdio has been investing heavily in promotion, such as having a Rdio app featured on Roku’s television remote controls. With this, Rdio joins the ranks of just three other services (Netflix, Amazon, Vudu) who have been allotted a remote control button. As a result of this deal, Rdio can now be accessed through three avenues of television: Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV.

Future Plans

Audio Upgrade [14]
On October 16th Rdio announced its plans to upgrade their entire music catalog to AAC audio files, which is a higher sound quality than MP3. This ushers in a new period for Rdio where users can choose which sound quality they prefer listening to on all devices. Paying users even have the ability to decide which sound quality they want for downloaded songs during offline listening. Rdio also expects that changing from MP3 streaming to 64 AAC streaming could reduce data consumption by a third. This is also welcome news for musicians such as  Grateful Dead band member Bob Weir, who worries that poor audio quality during streaming impedes upon the listening experience . Therefore Weir has granted Rdio an exclusive selection of tracks from TRI Studios to support the company’s move in raising the bar of audio quality.

Global Expansion

Rdio acquisition of 9 new territories brings its reach to 60 countries

Rdio acquisition of 9 new territories brings its total reach to 60 countries. Photo courtesy of Rdio.

Rdio announced in May of 2014 that it would be available in nine additional countries throughout Europe and Asia, bringing its total reach to 60 countries [15]. There are five Mediterranean and Eastern European countries  that Rdio will now be able to reach totaling 25 million people in Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia [15]. Asia has remained a relatively untapped market for Rdio although its services have been available in Malaysia and Hong Kong for just over a year [15]. 400 million people reside in the Asian countries Rdio is currently working toward expanding–Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore [15]. While all five of the European territories have been classified as “high income”, Singapore remains the only Asian country that is also categorized within this higher income bracket. In an effort to further push its international reach, this March Rdio acquired Indian streaming service Dhingana with plans to relaunch it later this year [15]. At the time of the purchase, Dhingana had 9 million monthly active users [16]. It was also projected that India will become the largest purchaser of smartphones after China in 2014, an estimated 92% of which will be new users [16]. These are promising statistics considering over 75% of Dhingana users access the streaming service through their mobile devices [15].

Sources

[1] Company Overview of Rdio, Inc. investing.businessweek.com Retrieved: 28     Nov 2014

[2]  CEO: Rdio’s problem? Not enough people use Rdio cnet.com Retrieved: 24 Nov 2014

[3] Rdio Names Former Amazon Exec Anthony Bay Its New CEO techcrunch.com Retrieved: 24 Nov 2014

[4] Rdio secures USD 17.5 mln in financing round telecompaper.com Retrieved: 13 Nov 2014

[5] Internet Radio Business with Free Listening Update billboard.com Retrieved: 24 Nov 2014

[6] Music Service Rdio in Deal With Cumulus nytimes.com Retrieved: 13 Nov 2014

[7] Rdio to Expand Its Offerings as Cumulus Partnership Heats Up This Summer billboard.com Retrieved: 13 Nov 2014

[8] Rdio Follows Spotify, Drops Family Plan Pricing pcmag.com Retrieved: 28 Nov 2014

[9] Here’s Why Taylor Swift Pulled Her Music From Spotify time.com Retrieved: 9 Nov 2014

[10] Rdio on Taylor Swift’s Spotify block: “This is art. It’s the artist’s choice” theguardian.com Retrieved: 13 Nov 2014

[11] Spotify and Rdio square off calgaryherald.com Retrieved: 30 Nov 2014

[12] Rdio Partner With Toronto Film Festival billboard.com Retrieved: 28 Oct 2014

[13] Rdio is getting ready to launch a completely revamped Roku app gigaom.com Retrieved: 24 Nov 2014

[14] Rdio upgrades the audio quality of its entire music library venturebeat.com Retreived: 28 Nov 2014

[15] Rdio Now Playing In Nine More European & Asian Countries billboard.com Retrieved: 15 Oct 2014

[16] Smartphone explosion in 2014 will see ownership in India pass US theguardian.com Retrieved: 15 Oct 2014

Spotify

Posted on by 
by Helen Lu

[1] Spotify’s Logo

KEY EXECUTIVES

[2] Spotify Founders- Martin Lorentzon & Daniel Ek

[3] Jeff Levick- Chief Business Officer

 

[4] Steve Savoca- Head of Content

 

[5] Ken Parks- Chief Content Officer & Managing Director USA

SPOTIFY OVERVIEW

[6] Spotify’s sleek interface layout for their multi-platform service.

Spotify is a privately-owned, digital music streaming service that provides on-demand access to tracks. It is available on multiple platforms, including computers, mobile, tablets, and home entertainment systems. Originally founded in Sweden in 2006, Spotify launched in the United States in 2011; it is now available in 58 markets. [7]

Spotify offers listeners the free model, “made possible by ads,”  and the premium model for $9.99 monthly, which is ad-free, high-quality, and available offline. [8] With over 20 million songs, over 20,000 tracks added daily, and over 1.5 billion playlists, Spotify has accumulated 10 million active users and a total of 40 million active users. [9]

COMPETITORS

Rdio, Pandora, Rhapsody, Google Play Music, Beats, iTunes Radio, Music Unlimited, and Xbox Music are worthy contenders in this competitive space. Product reviews assess service quality with major factors include song catalog, user interface, support, and features. [10] Each racing for a market share, these top players in the market are making strategic ploys to stay afloat.

On November 12th, Youtube announced their own streaming service, Youtube Music Key for $9.99. It will be interesting to see how it will affect the music industry when it fully hits the market in 2015. [11]

[12] Spotify and The Echo Nest collaboration

In early March 2014, Spotify acquired The Echo Nest, a big data company to enhance the music discovery feature, forcing Rdio, Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, and Vevo to look elsewhere for a discovery algorithm. [13]

THE SPOTIFY STRATEGY

Spotify has successfully targeted college students, establishing a solid audience base and brand loyalty. With personal information confirming their status, Spotify offers students Spotify Premium for only $4.99. [13] 

[13] Spotify engages their target audience: college students and 18-24 year-olds.

COLLEGE CASE STUDY

Spotify’s tenacious grasp on college students’ listening is reflected in their recently released research report of the Top 40 Musical Schools in America. The findings are a close study of the musical norms in the schools.

[14] Detailed graphs document music-genre distribution and listening spikes, showing not only what students listen to but also how they listen.

The data that Spotify is able to collect can be utilized for targeted advertising and marketing campaigns today. Moreover, with such a large following of the developing youth, Spotify is not only able to make significant advancements with the invaluable information about  today, but accurate inferences about these soon-to-be adults tomorrow. [13]

#THATSONGWHEN

Spotify launched their #thatsongwhen campaign with advertising agencies Ogilvy & Mather and David to further engage their millennial base. #Thatsongwhen allows users to tie their emotional experiences to their favorite songs, to create, and to tell stories. The customization, personalization, and interactivity of a musical experience attracts and retains a young crowd. [15]

The stories are media clips that are charged with emotion, and of course, music. Don’t Go Chasing Girls is about a man’s early memory of his childhood crush that is easily triggered with TLC’s hit song, Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls. Stories and songs are updated and posted on a live feed.

AD TAKEOVER

Spotify is introducing two new advertising options for eager advertisers:

1. The dubbed Video Takeover, only available on desktops, allows brands to takeover the screen during 15-30 second advertising breaks.

2.The dubbed Sponsor Sessions forces mobile users to view a 15-30 second video on their mobile devices in order to proceed onto 30 minutes of uninterrupted streaming. [16]

McDonald’s, Universal Pictures, and Ford are just some of the major sponsors that have opted into this advertising innovation. [17]

[18] McDonald’s format and utilization of Spotify’s advertising product – Video Takeover.

SPOTIFY PARTNERSHIPS

VODAFONE

Everything is going mobile, and music is no exception. This rapid trend of playing and streaming music from a smartphone is particularly prevalent in Australia. Due to these recent findings, Vodafone Australia has partnered with Spotify to bundle in Spotify Premium for free with their monthly plan. A Spotify Premium subscription generally costs $11.99 Australian dollars each month. The exclusive offers with Spotify vary, and are known as the Red Plans. [19]

[20] Research shows that 1.5 million Australians stream music from their mobile devices.

Vodafone believes that Spotify Premium’s features complement and maximize the use of their faster network speeds, value plans, and expanding 4G network. Both the companies and the listeners are benefitting from this collaboration as the marriage of these digital services follow consumer trends and meets consumer needs. [21]

CARPLAY

Apple Carplay is an a new feature configured in select 2014 vehicles. Spotify is on board for this innovative ride as it has updated and fixed some bugs for this new multimedia system. [22] The music player allows users to access their Spotify accounts using a compatible iPhone.  [23] With a built-in display to play music, Carplay is an exclusive and luxurious market; the Ferrari FF is one of the few select cars with Carplay. Several automobile manufacturers, however, are making an effort to include and support this system in the future.  [24]

[24] Spotify collaborates with Apple Carplay to incorporate music services in the latest car models.

UBER

Uber is a hip taxi service, and Spotify is a hip streaming service. These two successful startups partner up for a new listening experience. Passengers can link their custom playlists to Uber vehicles for a fun ride. Although this new feature has started off in ten cities, it makes a big splash in the car service industry and the music industry. This partnership allows both companies to co-promote their respective brands and to change with the times. The service is for Spotify Premium account holders. [25]

[26] Spotify and Uber modernize the standard cab-ride as they join forces to create a new listening experience.

SPOTIFY CONTROVERSY

Taylor Swift pulled her entire catalogue from Spotify’s music database as she believes that it does not fairly compensate artists. [27] As a popular musician, her bold move and her public statements rejecting the streaming business model has made headlines for weeks. Fans and critics are responding to her decision with distaste as both parties point out that there are other viable services, such as Youtube and SoundCloud, to play her music. [28] While she recently accepted the first-ever Dick Clark Award for Excellence at the 2014 American Music Awards Ceremony, she added another snide comment jabbing at Spotify and streaming services again. [29] Jason Aldean has followed Swift’s footsteps, and pulled his new album Old Boots, New Dirt from Spotify. [30]

Spotify executive, Ek, combats this frenzy and reports that artists that use Spotify to promote their music actually sell more, and that Spotify has returned over $2 billion to music industry today. Top artists like Swift are set to project over $6 million in revenue a year. [31] Despite the financial debate and moral controversy, the Spotify team still hopes for Swift to change her mind. [32]

[33] Taylor Swift is a firm believer in the value of music, and that it should not be free. Swift has pulled her music catalogue from Spotify.

It is unlikely that many artists will join Swift’s banning of the digital streaming business, as it is the digital age.  Reports confirm that streaming services grew 28% in the first half of 2014. [26] Listeners’ habits changed; artists can sink, but digital streaming services will swim.

SPOTIFY: LOOKING AHEAD

 Despite the recent controversies, Spotify has achieved success with their recent collaborations; the student discount and the partnership with Vodafone have led Spotify subscriptions to increase by 42%. [28]  Spotify Family Plan has launched with popular demand and proven financial success with previous discount deals. The plan allows subscribers to add four family members to their account for half the price. [34]

Spotify’s name is globally recognized, and Spotify’s services are well integrated into the new digital age. Its key strategies and partnerships keep it on the bleeding edge of the music industry.

 Sources

1. Spotify’s Logo, Spotifypress.com, RT:11.29.2014

2. Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, RT: 11.29.2014

3. Jeff Levick, RT: 11.29.2014

4. Steve Savoca, Spotifypress.com, RT:11.29.2014  

5. Ken Parks, Evolver.fm, RT: 11.29.2014

6. Spotify Interface Layout,  RT: 11.29.2014

7. Spotify Business Information, investing.businessweek.com, RT: 11.29.2014

8. Spotify Official Website, spotify.com/us, RT: 11.29.2014 

9. Spotify Press Information, spotify.com/information, RT: 11.29.2014 

10. “Spotify and competitors play to their musical strengths”, usatoday.com, RT: 11.29.2014 

11. “YouTube Launching Spotify-Style Paid Music Service”, TIME, RT: 11.29.2014

12. Spotify and The Echo Nest Collaboration, RT: 11.29.2014 

13. “Will Spotify’s hat trick help it pull ahead of competition?”, Fortune, RT: 11.29.2014

14. How Students Listen, spotify.com, RT: 11.29.2014 

15. “Spotify Ties Music to Personal Stories in Its New Ads”, adweek.com, RT: 11.29.2014

16. “Spotify Unveils Video Takeover Ad Product for Free Users”, telecompaper.com, RT: 11.29.2014

17. “Spotify is bringing video ‘takeover ads’ to its free service”, theverge.com, RT: 11.29.2014

18. Spotify Video Takeover Format, spotify.com, RT: 11.29.2014  

19. “Vodafone offers postpaid customers free Spotify Premium access”, CNET, RT: 11.29.2014

20. “Spotify partners with Vodafone Australia for down under listeners”, rainnews.com, RT: 11.29.2014

21. “Vodafone Australia and Spotify join forces!”, vodafone.com, RT: 11.29.2014

22. “Spotify adds support for Apple’s CarPlay in update to iOS app”, talkingnewmedia.com, RT: 11.29.2014 

23. “Spotify Adds CarPlay Support in Latest iOS Update”, macrumors.com, RT: 11.29.2014

24. “Apple CarPlay comes to Pioneer stereos as Spotify adds support”, engadget.com, RT: 11.29.2014

25. “Tuneup, redefined: You can now Spotify your Uber ride”, CNET, RT: 11.29.2014 

26. Uber and Spotify Partnership, Uber.com, RT: 11.29.2014

27. “Taylor Swift is right about music, wrong about Spotify, says CEO Ek”, CNET, RT: 11.29.2014

28. “Why Taylor Swift Will Lose Her Battle With Spotify”, TIME, RT: 11.29.2014

29. “AMAs: Taylor Swift Continues Anti-Streaming-Service Stance in Dick Clark Award Speech”, hollywoodreporter.com, RT: 11.29.2014 

30. “Jason Aldean Agrees with Taylor Swift, WIll Remove New Album From Spotify”, musictimes.com, RT: 11.29.2014 

31. “$2 Billion and Counting”, spotify.com, RT: 11.29.2014

32. “Here’s Why Taylor Swift Pulled Her Music From Spotify”, TIME, RT: 11.29.2014

33. “Taylor Swift and the Whole Spotify Thing”, uloop.com, RT: 11.29.2014

34. “Spotify launching family plan with cheaper subscriptions for families”, theguardian.com, RT: 11.29.2014

YouTube

Image

By Sean Mowry (scmowry)

Youtube Wiki 1[1]

Youtube LLC
901 Cherry Ave
San Bruno, CA
94066
(650) 253-0000

Key Executives [2]

Larry Page CEO and Co-Founder

YouTube Larry Page

Eric E. Schmidt Executive Chairman

YouTube EricSchmidt

Susan Wojcicki Senior Vice President, YouTube

YouTube susan-wojcicki

History

In 2005 three PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, started up YouTube as a video-sharing site.  By the end of the first year, the site had 200,000 registered users and showed more than 2 million videos a day [3].  In 2006, Google bought YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars despite copyright concerns from media corporations at the time.  Google then decided to reach out and partner with the Universal Music Group, CBS Corp., Sony, and BMG Music Entertainment [4].  Now, more than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month and over 6 billion hours of video are watched every month on YouTube.  Each minute, 100 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube and according to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network.  The website is a global powerhouse, with 80% of YouTube traffic coming from outside the US [5].

YouTube Google[18]

 Finances

Google Inc. reported consolidated revenues of $16.52 billion for the third quarter, ending September 30, which is an increase of 20% compared with the third quarter report from 2013.  $9.55 billion, or 58% of this revenue is from outside the United States.  Net income for the third quarter is $2.81 billion, which is down from $2.97 billion in 2013.  This is also lower than the second quarter net income of $3.42 billion [6].  As of 11/30/2014, Google’s stock is $541.83 [7].

YouTube Stock[19]

Subscriptions

YouTube is continuing to roll out two new subscription services this year.  The first is a wave of paid subscription channels, like those offered for free now, but without advertising.  This was launched in 2013 but the website is aggressively expanding the number of channels this year.  They now offer 238 channels, like NorthwoodsLeague, which is a summer baseball league comprised of top North American College players [8].  With more video online, and most of that online video is coming from YouTube, the website predicts that there will be a sizable share of the audience who would rather pay to watch the content than sit through advertising.  The project is a means of offering more options, and it also follows the subscription models of Netflix or Hulu, but at a more specific scale so that the site can operate effectively the same as before the rollout [9][10].

YouTube NWL[20]

The second subscription service launched this year is that of Music Key, which is a program that allows users to watch music videos without ads while also giving them the option to download the content onto their devices for offline listening and viewing.  The mobile devices will also be able to continue playing music in the background when they switch to other programs.  In addition to album tracks, Music Key offers downloads of concert recordings, remixes, unreleased rarities and cover versions recorded by others.  While YouTube hails itself as “the biggest music service on the planet” it is desperately lagging behind Spotify’s 12.5 million paying subscribers [11]. 

In July of 2014, Google also acquired Songza, a music streaming service that specializes in offering playlists made by people that are advertised for listening at any given time or during any given mood that you want.  Songza is still running as a separate service, but Google and YouTube are looking to apply the company’s expertise to their products like Google Play or Music Key [12].

In other news, YouTube now allows users to upload video in 60 frames per second, where before they were capped at 30 frames per second [13].

East Coast Presence

YouTube is a west coast, online company, but now it has recently opened up YouTube Space New York, a studio in Manhattan that is available to any channel that has more than 5,000 subscribers and is part of the Partner Program in which ads are hosted and revenue is shared.  The studios are a way of giving content creators more means of making an effective product and expanding their audience while also giving the company a footing in the diverse media landscape of New York City.  Since the studios opened in other cities like London, Los Angeles, and Tokyo two years ago, more than 30,00 people have attended 450 workshops and created 6,000 videos that were seen for 47 million hours [14][15].

YouTube spaces[21]

Another bonus to this is that it brings the company within proximity of Madison Ave, and they have been touring the studios with advertising executives to offer them an opportunity to collaborate with creators.  So a company like Maybelline could use BrandLab to host a day in which creators who focus in beauty could collaborate with them.  Many of these channels offer audiences numbers that would leave traditional players envious, but advertisers continue to put a low cost on these audiences.  The company hopes to change that mentality [14].

Competition From Facebook

YT face[22]

In early November 2014, a John Lewis Christmas Ad stormed social media.  The video was shared 200,000 times within the first 24 hours, and most of this was on Facebook.  While that might be good for the department store, Facebook stole 40% of the online audience for the video, which would have previously belonged exclusively to YouTube.  Facebook is now placing video at the heart of the company’s growth announcing this September that the platform achieved more than 1 billion views a day. Facebook is rolling out video advertising slowly, so that users can get used to the idea of having ads on their news feeds [17].

[23]

Facebook is also trying to lure content creators to the site by sharing their ad revenue in a more lucrative ratio.  While they would be developing features that are reminiscent of YouTube, they have the News Feed, which is the key to their success and something that YouTube will have to anticipate combating in the near future.  Often times Youtube channels will use Facebook to promote their videos but if they were to switch to the social media platform all together, a lot of ad revenue could be lost for YouTube, considering that they have been on top for so long, that they are struggling with loosing their audience and their bait for advertisers [16].

Sources

[1] YouTube Logo RT 30 November 2014

[2] Google Management RT 30 November 2014

[3] “Video Websites Pop Up, Invite Postings” RT 30 November 2014

[4] Google Buys YouTube RT 30 November 2014

[5] YouTube Statistics RT 30 November 2014

[6] Google Third Quarter Report 2014 RT 30 November 2014

[7] Google Second Quarter Report 2014 RT 30 November 2014

[8] YouTube Channels RT 30 November 2014

[9] “YouTube Considers Paid, Ad-Free Subscriptions” RT 30 November 2014

[10] “YouTube Is Said to Plan a Subscription Option” RT 30 November 2014

[11] “YouTube Music Key subscription service is unveiled” RT 30 November 2014

[12] “Google Buys Songza” RT 30 November 2014

[13] “YouTube Can Now Play Videos At A Buttery 60 Frames Per Second” RT 30 November 2014

[14] “YouTube Takes Manhattan” RT 30 November 2014

[15] YouTube Spaces RT 30 November 2014

[16] “Facebook Wants To Poach A Whole Bunch Of Talent From YouTube — And The Ad Money That Comes With Them” RT 30 November 2014

[17] “Facebook Is Stealing A Huge Chunk Of YouTube’s Audience” RT 30 November 2014

[18] Google Paint Logo RT 30 November 2014

[19] Google Stock Quote RT 30 November 2014

[20] Northwoods League RT 1 December 2014

[21] YouTube Spaces RT 1 December 2014

[22] Facebook RT 1 December 2014

[23] John Lewis Christmas Ad RT 1 December 2014

Sirius XM Radio

Posted on by

by Allie Reeves

Sirius Logo

[1] SiriusXM Logo

The Sirius Story:

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is a satellite radio service that offers commercial-free streaming on over 175 channels in the United States and Canada. These channels are comprised of every type of radio – music, news, sports, talk, and more [2]. It is currently the largest radio broadcaster and caters to about 26.7 million subscribers [3].

SiriusXM Programming

[30] SiriusXM Programming

Currently, the most popular way for subscribers to enjoy SiriusXM Radio is in the comfort of their cars. SiriusXM has arrangements with over forty automakers for installation of their services directly into the vehicle [3]. However, as of recent, SiriusXM has become available to stream directly online in your home or office, as well as an app that can be accessed on Smartphones and Tablets.

SiriusXM currently offers three different packages: Sirius Select, Sirius All Access, and Sirius Mostly Music. The packages can be bought on a monthly or annual basis and range in price from $9.99 to $199 [4].

Most Popular Packages

[4] Most Popular Packages for SiriusXM Customers

The Sirius Team: 

Scott Greenstein, President & Chief Content Officer

[6] Scott Greenstein, President & Chief Content Officer

James E. Meyer, CEO

[5] James E. Meyer, CEO

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick L. Donnelly, Executive Vice President and General Counsel

[7] Patrick L. Donnelly, Executive Vice President and General Counsel

Finances:

Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 2.30.57 PM

[31] SiriusXM finances as of December 1, 2014

SiriusXM recently released their 2014 Third Quarter Results, which revealed a 10% increase in revenue since this time last year, putting the company at a record high of $1.1 billion. This is higher than analysts originally anticipated for the company, as they put the company’s assumed revenue at $1.04 billion. The company also increased its subscriber count by 1.2 million [8].

Interest in shares of SiriusXM increased rapidly during the month of November. As of November 14th, there has been an increase of 2.8% since October 31st up to 247, 283,696. The company is now up to a $3.75 price on their stock [32].

Competitors:

Apple Inc. Logo

[11] Apple Inc. Logo

SiriusXM’s current competitors are Apple and iHeartMedia, as well as regular terrestrial radio. Pandora and Spotify have also been named as competitors, but in a recent interview with James Meyer, CEO of SiriusXM, the two services were ruled out.

iHeartMedia Logo

[12] iHeartMedia Logo

Meyer explained these companies are streaming services, which he doesn’t view as competition, but as its own distinct technology. Meyer also stated that out of them all, terrestrial radio is their primary competition, with 220 million people that use it everyday [9].

However, with Apple’s new CarPlay, that might not be the case for much longer. CarPlay gives drivers access to all of their music, podcasts, and audiobooks with the touch of a button, and major auto companies like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Ferrari are already on board. The venture is still in its early stages, but since SiriusXM is primarily used by vehicle subscribers, CarPlay could end up being a serious competitor [10].

Apple CarPlay

[13] Apple CarPlay

The Sirius Edge:

What sets SiriusXM apart from its competitors at Apple, and iHeartMedia is the company’s original content that can only be accessed through subscriptions to SiriusXM.

The Howard Stern Show

[15] The Howard Stern Show, one of the most popular talk shows on SiriusXM

Some of the most popular original content shows include The Howard Stern Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and NFL Radio, although many more are available [3]. This original content helps keep   subscribers tuning in, and keeps SiriusXM’s churn rate at an impressive 1.9%. It also helps the company keep their acquisition costs low, which has recently become problematic for companies like Pandora [14].

SiriusXM Town Hall Event

[17] SiriusXM Town Hall Event in the Fishbowl

SiriusXM is also known for their “Town Hall” Series. These intimate gatherings take place in the SiriusXM fishbowl, a private listening studio, where entertainers sit down with a live studio audience comprised of about 30 SiriusXM subscribers who have won an invitation to the event [16].

Taylor Swift for SiriusXM

[19] Taylor Swift at a Town Hall Event for SiriusXM

Recently, SiriusXM was able to snag Taylor Swift for a Town Hall Event. Subscribers had the chance to ask her questions and listen to songs off of her newest album, 1989. This event comes after Swift’s recent decision to pull her music off of Spotify, giving even more leverage to SiriusXM [18].

The Today Show for SiriusXM:

This past year, SiriusXM announced a major deal with NBC, in which simulcasts of the hit NBC show, The Today Show, would be broadcasted on the satellite radio service. The format of bringing a morning show to radio has been done before, unsuccessfully. However, what makes this different is that SiriusXM will not be airing segments of the popular morning show, they will be airing the program identically as it airs on television [20].

The Today Show

[24] The Today Show

This move was a strategic boost for both companies. The show airs during popular morning drive time, when radio listening is at its highest. The deal will allow NBC to access SiriusXM’s 26 million listeners, and SiriusXM hopes to draw in more subscribers that are already fans of the show.

 

[21]

Suing Sirius:

SiriusXM has come under fire in the past year over use of music recorded before 1972. More recently, individual bands have started going after the company, claiming that they deserve compensation. Although songs recorded before February 15th, 1972 are not covered by federal copyright law, some artists and labels have been seeking protection under individual state laws – and the courts have been agreeing.  As of November 17th, the 1960s rock band, The Turtles, has had two victories against the satellite radio company [22].

The Turtles, 1960s

[25] Rock Band The Turtles in the 1960s

The court ruled that music recorded before 1972 still has a public performance right and that digital services cannot use it without permission or compensation. SiriusXM has requested to dismiss the lawsuit, but it has been rejected. The judge ruled that SiriusXM has until December 5th to show any factual issues that would be cause for a trial. If none are found, she will rule in favor of the band, and “assess damages” [23].

What’s Next:

Joel Osteen

[28] Joel Osteen

SiriusXM recently announced that Golf Hall of Fame member Sir Nick Faldo will receive his own show, where he will talk golf and get to know golf enthusiasts, while they get a chance to know him [26]. SiriusXM also launched a new pop channel, Venus, as well as adding some of their popular internet only channels like Y2Kountry and Utopia to their satellite lineup. Joel Osteen Radio will also be coming to SiriusXM, a station rooted in the power of “positive thinking with messages of inspiration” [27].

[33] Holiday music channels at SiriusXM

[33] Holiday music channels at SiriusXM

SiriusXM is currently celebrating the sounds of the holiday season with the addition of two new Holiday Music channels, Holly and Holiday Traditions. They plan to release more within the upcoming month [33].

Also effective January 2015, there will be an increase of 1.4 percentage points in the U.S. Music Royalty Fee applied to most SiriusXM audio packages, in order to fund royalty payments to the music industry [29].

Sources

1. SiriusXM’s Logo 2014, Fbnstatic.com, RT: 11/20/2014

2. What is SiriusXM?, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

3. Corporate Overview, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

4. Our Most Popular Packages, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

5. Chief Executive Officer, SiriusXM, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

6. President & Chief Content Officer, SiriusXM, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

7. Executive Vice President and General Counsel, SiriusXM, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

8. “SiriusXM Reports Third Quarter 2014 Results”, Investor.siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

9. “Sirius XM CEO: I Don’t See Spotify As A Direct Competitor”, Benzinga.com, RT: 11/22/2014

10. “Is Apple’s New Toy a Sirius XM or Pandora Killer?”, Fool.com, RT: 11/22/2014

11. Apple Inc. Logo, Worldofdtcmarketing.com, RT: 11/22/2014

12. iHeartMedia Logo, Billboard, RT: 11/24/2014

13. Apple Car Play, Uncrate.com, RT: 11/24/2014

14. “Sirius XM’s Main Edge Over Competitors”, Fool.com, RT: 11/28/2014

15. The Howard Stern Show, Tuaw.com, RT: 11/22/2014

16. SiriusXM Town Hall, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

17. SiriusXM Fishbowl Event, Howstuffworks.com, RT: 11/28/2014

18. “Taylor Swift’s Exclusive 1989 “Town Hall” to Air Live on SiriusXM”, Investor.siriusxm.com, RT: 11/24/2014

19. Taylor Swift for SiriusXM, SiriusXM Blog, RT: 11/22/2014

20. “Starting in June, ‘Today’ Will Simulcast on SiriusXM”, New York Times, RT: 11/28/2014

21. Today Show Radio on SiriusXM, YouTube, RT: 11/28/2014

22. “Rock band wins again in copyright battle against Sirius XM”, The Times of India, RT: 11/28/2014

23. “New York Court Delivers Third Strike Against Sirius XM on Pre-1972 Sound Recordings”, Sound Exchange, RT: 11/28/2014

24. Today Show Logo, Momsdemandaction.org, RT: 11/28/2014

25. The Turtles, Allmusic.com, RT: 11/28/2014

26. “Sir Nick Faldo to Host SiriusXM Show”, Techsonian.com, RT: 11/28/2014

27. New Channels and Lineup Changes, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

28. Joel Osteen, Lightsource.com, RT: 11/28/2014

29. “U.S. Music Royalty Fee Effective January 5, 2015”, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/28/2014

30. SiriusXM Programming, Siriusxm.com, RT: 11/20/2014

31. SiriusXM Financials, Google, RT: 12/1/2014

32. SiriusXM Stock Information, Watchlistnews.com, RT: 12/1/2014

33. Holiday Music at SiriusXM, Siriusxm.com, RT: 12/1/2014

Spotify

Posted on by 
by Caitlin Lytle

spotify-logo-primary-horizontal-light-background-rgb

[1] Brand name and Logo

OVERVIEW:

Spotify is one of the top streaming services on the market and is all about finding the right song for the right moment. There are over 30 million songs to choose to stream from, with over 50 million active users in 58 markets across the globe [2]. While Spotify is relatively new in American, launching in 2011, it was founded in 2008 in Sweden.

Spotify Interface

The Spotify interface users see [3].

Users can create profiles, and on there create playlists, they can follow other users playlists, and share songs on social media by connecting through Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. In addition to following their friend’s accounts they can also follow celebrity accounts and see what their followers are listening to on a side bar. The service also serves as a great music discovery tool, with Spotify’s own curated playlists, and radio feature similar to that of Pandora. With free and paid accounts there is a little bit of something for everyone with platforms on a user’s computer, mobile, tablet, and most recently home entertainment systems.

Subscriptions are broken up into two types, free and “premium” accounts in which users pay $9.99 a month to experience add free listening as well as more access to mobile listening and off line listening with data. The ratio to active paying subscribers to free listeners is over 20% [4].

COMPETITORS: 

Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 2.50.41 AM

Infographic aligning Spotify with their top competitor streaming services [5].

With the legacy of CDs and era of illegal downloading slowly dying out in the music business, people are looking more and more to streaming as a way to consume music. Because of this and the gap in the market for streaming services, in the last two years there has been a large emergence of streaming services that serve as competitors to Spotify. Last year Beats headphones launched Beats Music, and Amazon Prime Music launched recently as well, amongst already existent competitors like Rhapsody and Google Play.

DEEZER COMES TO UNITED STATES: 

Deezer logo [].

Deezer logo [6].

On September 14, 2014 Deezer came to America, which could potentially prove it self to be Spotify’s biggest competitor. Deezer is one of the world’s biggest names in streaming with its services available in 180 countries [5]. Due to licensing rights, they were not able to expand into the U.S. for quite some time, but now have the market of paying subscribers to go from 5 million users to rival Spotify’s 10 million international users [5]. However Spotify is at a slight advantage, because while Deezer is usually formatted with a similar interface to Spotify, Deezer in America is launching on a new platform. Deezer is only launching for US users through pricy Sonos sound systems and only those with speakers and the app can subscribe to the Deezer Elite service, with a steep price tag of $19.99 a month which is double that rate to Spotify’s for premium [7].

TAYLOR SWIFT AND THE STREAMING STRUGGLE:

Celebrity Sightings In New York City - October 30, 2014

Taylor Swift pulls catalog from Spotify [8].

In addition to Deezer coming to America this fall, Spotify also recently suffered another large loss. Pop- country princess, Taylor Swift, just pulled her entire catalog from the streaming service. With such a large artist, obviously Swift has caused a large impact on what consumers are streaming, especially with the recent release of an album. This is all apart of a larger argument right now not only with Spotify, but all streaming services that artists are being paid too little for the amount of plays they are receiving [9]. However, Taylor’s case is different. Management released a statement that she believes art and music are important and should be fully purchased and that albums and means of listening to that music should not be free [8]. Because of this all of her music was pulled from streaming services with free accounts, but not those services where you are required to pay in order to have a profile. There is large debate as to whether or not her music will return, but for the time being fans are expected to buy albums, and how the relationship between Taylor Swift and Spotify will develop is one to track.

SPOTIFY GROWTH:

While this fall has given Spotify some tough situations, this has not stopped them from expanding.

SPOTIFY FAMILY 

Spotify Family, is the newest development in the programs interface. Similar to Netflix family accounts, Spotify Family now allows large families to have one billing account but different profiles for different family members, so Dad’s Rolling Stones playlists don’t get mixed in with Daughter’s Disney Princess playlist [10]. There are separate profiles and therefore different recommendations and profiles can be listened to at the same time, unlike before when one account could only be streamed in one place at a time [10]. In addition there is also a premium upgrade discount for families wanting to upgrade to this added service [10].

SPOTIFY + UBER

Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 3.32.34 AM

Spotify collaborates with popular car service, Uber [11].

Spotify is know for its unique brand collaborations, which continue as they offer music lovers cool experiences. This November on the 21st they collaborated with Uber to give Spotify and Uber the ride of a lifetime [11]. When users had both apps on the 21st, they could not only request a special car and get a vehicle with the new Spotify- enabled Uber cars, but they also had the chance to either get in a car that took them to a secret show in an undisclosed location, or get the chance to be picked up and driven around by some of their favorite artists [11]. This venture really shows the creative side of Spotify and how they connect with their users beyond a screen.

Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 3.32.16 AM

Artists and Shows available during the Uber promotion [11].

SPOTIFY + CARPLAY

Besides the Spotify- enabled Uber cars, Spotify is now reaching our vehicles this fall with CarPlay support in the latest iOS update [12]. The ioS app adds Apple CarPlay integration with that allows users to access the app through dash receivers and makes it easier for people to use the service in their vehicles [12]. Audi, Ferrari, Ford, and Hundai all plan on making the application available in their upcoming models for the next year [12].

WHAT’S NEXT?

With all of these great strides Spotify is taking to make them selves more user friendly and connect with their users, they will continue to be one of the top streaming services into 2015.

We can look to see Spotify as a brand present at future music festivals next spring as the festival season is fast approaching, as well as other unique music experiences brought to users with live music interaction, beyond the screen.

sources:

1. Spotify’s Logo 2014, Spotifypress.com, RT: 12/01/14

2. Spotify Press Fast Facts, Press.Spotify.com,  RT: 12/01/14

3. Spotify User Profile Screen Shot, Open.spotify.com/artists, RT: 12/01/14

4. Spotify Press Information, Press.Spotify.com, RT: 12/01/14

5. Which Music Streaming Service Is the Biggest Worldwide?, Billboard.com, RT: 12/01/14

6. Deezer Logo 2014, Deezer.com, RT: 12/01/14

7. Deezer enters US market with Elite lossless service, Cnet.com, RT: 12/01/14

8. Taylor Swift Explains Why She Pulled Her Music From Spotify, Huffingtonpost.com, RT: 12/01/14

9. How is Spotify Contributing to the Music Business?, Spotifyartists.com, RT: 12/01/14

10. Introducing Spotify Family – one account for the whole band., News.spotify.com, RT: 12/01/14

11. 10 cities. 10 artists. Take a ride or see an exclusive live session., News.spotify.com, RT: 12/01/14

12. Spotify Adds CarPlay Support in Latest iOS Update, Macrumors.com, RT: 12/01/14