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Spotify is in a tight spot (ba-dum-tsh). Valued at a lofty 7.7x gross profit because they pay out most revenue to record labels. First they try to improve profi
by cheriot 4y ago
Spotify is in a tight spot (ba-dum-tsh). Valued at a lofty 7.7x gross profit because they pay out most revenue to record labels. First they try to improve profitability by buying Rogan and other podcasters, but that didn't drive enough listening. So now they tell investors they'll be the YouTube of audio. Which means the product changes away from music will keep coming. Can they keep users happy while pushing them to listen to user uploaded audio?
Surprising to me that investors are buying it.
- Gareth321 4y ago> First they try to improve profitability by buying Rogan and other podcasters, but that didn't drive enough listening. Spotify is reportedly very happy with Rogan listeners. It is, reportedly, like a new Taylor Swift album dropping every single episode. Investors are very happy with Spotify's commercial success in the podcast space.
- cheriot 4y ago> “In hindsight, I probably got a little carried away and overinvested relative to the uncertainty we saw shaping up in the market,” Ek said on an earnings call in January Then why is management abandoning that strategy? That's what the entire article is about...
- mardifoufs 4y agoIt might be that they are happy with some podcasts, but only some. Meaning that it was a bad idea to capitalize this much on podcasts when only a few actually turned out to be performing well.
- cheriot 4y agoThe core strategy was spending a lot of money on podcasts exclusive to Spotify. I'm not doubting that some were a success, but they no long want to spend money on exclusive content. That's a huge shift.
- gardenhedge 4y agoJRE has been a huge success story
- Zetice 4y agoThe entire article is about how it's not.
- gardenhedge 4y agoDid you even read the article?