I agree, but I don't think it will be necessary to pay radically more.
I was actually happy to see they did $57m losses on $250m revenues; even happier when I saw that a large sum of the loss was the new staff.
Worry not, because, in my opinion; Spotify is here to stay and is solving a problem that is certainly worth solving.
Its the combination of several factors:
A previous commenter stated that Spotify is not only competing for iTunes' money, but with piracy too. I agree; they're converting a client that was worth $0.00 over their lifetime (as well as those who 'pirated and then purchased', etc) into paying the artist per listen. That's absolutely radical.
The $20m increase in staffing is a direct product of this vision. The new staff is hard at work at making Spotify available on as many platforms, as beautifully as possible, with as many artists and in as many countries as possible.
The price, whether it be $9.99 or $12.45, won't be the problem, pricing can be fixed later with more data.
The only danger Spotify faces is the resistance it is facing in 'the rest of the world', where there may be entrenched local media companies with distribution rights, or local music/label representatives may be weary of the payment model. That would limit their scale, and Spotify needs scale to work.
... thank god for the $100m Sean Parker found for Spotify, and for the X billions more he can sway for it as well. I'd bet on Spotify today more than ever, it may be a long bet, but we haven't seen such a successful contender in this category since iTunes.
Spotify is an A+ example of what every other startup with 1/100th of the business plan or cojones is trying to do: Spotify is aiming to become a billion dollar company, and I congratulate them for that.
The music industry is worth spending tens, hundreds, even thousands of millions to fix/disrupt/change/make better.
Worry not, because, in my opinion; Spotify is here to stay and is solving a problem that is certainly worth solving.
Its the combination of several factors:
A previous commenter stated that Spotify is not only competing for iTunes' money, but with piracy too. I agree; they're converting a client that was worth $0.00 over their lifetime (as well as those who 'pirated and then purchased', etc) into paying the artist per listen. That's absolutely radical.
The $20m increase in staffing is a direct product of this vision. The new staff is hard at work at making Spotify available on as many platforms, as beautifully as possible, with as many artists and in as many countries as possible.
The price, whether it be $9.99 or $12.45, won't be the problem, pricing can be fixed later with more data.
The only danger Spotify faces is the resistance it is facing in 'the rest of the world', where there may be entrenched local media companies with distribution rights, or local music/label representatives may be weary of the payment model. That would limit their scale, and Spotify needs scale to work.
... thank god for the $100m Sean Parker found for Spotify, and for the X billions more he can sway for it as well. I'd bet on Spotify today more than ever, it may be a long bet, but we haven't seen such a successful contender in this category since iTunes.
Spotify is an A+ example of what every other startup with 1/100th of the business plan or cojones is trying to do: Spotify is aiming to become a billion dollar company, and I congratulate them for that.
The music industry is worth spending tens, hundreds, even thousands of millions to fix/disrupt/change/make better.