The world's largest legitimate streaming music service platform: Spotify Technology (SPOT)

Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) is a music streaming service originated in Sweden Largest in the world The authentic streaming music service provider was officially launched in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, in October 2008, Headquartered in Sweden Stockholm， 9058 full-time employees. Spotify offers Sony Music (Sony Music Group, the second largest record company in the world), EMI (EMI Group Limited, an electronics and music industry company, whose record department and copyright department were respectively acquired by Universal Records and Sony Music Entertainment in 2012) Warner Music Group (Warner Music Group, the third largest record company in the world) and Universal Music Group (Universal Music Group, the largest record company in the world, are French giant media transnational groups—— Vivendi Music licensed by four major record companies of Vivendi SA (Euronext: VIV) and many independent labels and protected by digital rights management (DRM).

The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

Shengtian Spotify Technology (SPOT) Encyclopedia of US Stocks

Spotify was founded as a free value-added enterprise, providing two levels of music: Spotify Free (160kbit/s) and Spotify Premium (above 320kbit/s). The premium subscription of the paid version (the global price is different, and the price in the United States is US $9.99/month) has no advertising throughout the whole process, which improves the music quality and allows the subscriber to download and listen offline. In addition, there is a home Premium subscription, which can be used by six accounts with the same functions but different prices (the prices are different in the world, Hong Kong is priced at HK $88/month, while Taiwan is priced at NT $149/month). It supports a variety of devices, including Windows, macOS, Linux computers, and Android, iOS smartphones and tablets. The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

Different from the fixed price paid for each song or album purchased or downloaded for sale in the store, the amount paid by Spotify to performers is based on market share, which is the click rate and playing times ratio of the audio stream of the song in the total songs, about 0.04-0.1 cents per play. Spotify's revenue comes from two aspects. Among them, the revenue from free services mainly comes from advertising, while the revenue from paid services comes from the monthly fees paid by Spotify Premium users. The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

In March 2011, Spotify announced that it had 1 million paying users in Europe. By September 2011, the number of paying users had doubled to 2 million. In August 2012, Time magazine reported 15 million active users, including 4 million paid Spotify subscribers. Users continued to grow. In December 2012, the total number of active users reached 20 million, including 5 million paying customers worldwide and 1 million paying customers in the United States. By March 2013, the service had 24 million active users, of which 6 million were paying users. It grew to 40 million users (including 10 million paying users) in May 2014, 60 million users (including 15 million paying users) in December 2014, 75 million users (20 million paying users) in June 2015, and 30 million paying users in March 2016, There were 40 million paying users in September 2016, and the total number of users in June 2016 was 100 million. In April 2020, Spotify will have 133 million advanced users. The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

• As of December 31, 2019, Spotify's platform includes 271 million monthly active users and 124 million advanced subscribers in 79 countries and regions.
• As of December 31, 2020, Spotify has 345 million monthly active users and 155 million senior subscribers in 93 countries and regions.
• As of December 31, 2021, Spotify has 406 million monthly active users and 180 million advanced users in 184 countries and regions.

Technical Information

Spotify's Software It is proprietary and uses digital rights management (DRM) to prevent unauthorized use. The system will find the encrypted music stored on the phone or computer desktop to play when the user clicks the song. Among them, the playing period will be limited (for example, a seven day free trial can only be downloaded offline within seven days, and then you must upgrade to Premium. The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

The audio stream uses the "Ogg Vorbis" format and has three sound quality levels: The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

• Spotify Mobile Q3（96kbit/s），
• Spotify Free Q5（160kbit/s），
• Spotify Premium Q9（320kbit/s）。
  Spotify has a 265 ms or 390 ms local temporary playback delay.

Spotify is still testing the "Spotify Hi Fi" service, which uses the "FLAC" format for CD quality music (16bit/44.1kHz) and high-definition audio Hi Res music (24bit/96kHz or 24bit/192kHz) services, and requires an extra charge of 5 to 10 dollars per month. Currently, the service is only available in Europe and the United States. The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

The size and location of high-speed temporary storage can be configured. It is recommended that the computer have 1GB or more hard disk space. On OS X, a G4 processor or higher is required. The user must create a Spotify account or use Facebook Account login to use the software. This account can be used on multiple computers, but music can only be played on one device. The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

In the 0.4.3 software version, it can play MP3 and AAC music files stored in the computer. The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

In addition to playing on the computer or mobile phone, Spotify can also operate and play in some brand car entertainment systems through Bluetooth, such as Ford SYNC system. The article originates from the home of American stocks | encyclopedia of American stocks | account opening and investment of American and Hong Kong stocks- https://www.mg21.com/spot.html

Product features:

• Cross platform, supporting MAC and Windows, ubuntu and debian under Linux
• High quality audio. According to official documents, Ogg Vorbis q5 codec is used for encoding, and the audio stream is about 160kb/s.
• P2P, P2P applications here use online playback very smoothly, and the number of buffer delays is very small.
• The interface is gorgeous. Some people say that Spotify is a variant of iTunes, which is not excessive. Although it has a user interface similar to iTunes and Songbird, Spotify performs better under Windows than these two software, and the response speed of software in low configuration PC is also very fast.
• Rich music library. Almost all mainstream European and American pop music can be found here, and the album information of each artist is also very comprehensive. You can even find a lot of rare albums here. Of course, because of the crowd, Chinese music is very rare here. But as long as you are willing to dig, a large number of military songs above will certainly make you acclaimed. (Note: All Chinese music above is searched by artist's English name or Pinyin)
• The artists have rich information. Spotify features that each artist is accompanied by a detailed introduction and album review.
• On demand. Because the artist database is open to users, users can demand music at will. (This is also one of the characteristics of Spotify. Few legally authorized online music websites dare to do so.)
• Social music features. Spotify not only can submit music listening records to users' accounts, but also has a large number of social music attributes. Including playlist creation and sharing, artist radio, music recommendation, Sptify pop list, music style radio.
• Free (with ads, you can also use a subscription account without ads)

business model

Spotify adopts a free value-added model (basic services are free, while additional functions are provided through paid subscriptions). Spotify relies on streaming media subscription to premium users and third-party advertising as its revenue.

1. Subscription

Spotify encourages people to pay for music and uses user subscriptions as its main source of income.

Subscribers removed advertising and restrictions, and added higher quality songs to 320 kbit/s. In addition, Spotify plans to launch Hifi audio quality subscription service in mid 2017 at a cost of $5 to $10 a month (Added in the basic monthly fee) Subscribers also allow unlimited use on mobile devices, as well as offline dialing and playing and online access to playlists.

Spotify offers new users a free 30 day trial of Premium features. Users must enter credit card or other payment information to subscribe to avoid terminating their subscription at any time before the end of the trial period for advanced payment functions.

Tim Ingham, chief editor of BBC Music Weekly, said: "Unlike buying CDs or downloading music, streaming music is not a one-time payment to musicians, but hundreds of millions of streaming music streams that are being clicked and played every day, quickly providing potential income needed by musicians. These incomes provide a stable and long-term source of income for musicians".

2. Advertising

Spotify provides free users with seven different types of advertisements, which are described in their advertising specifications: music advertisements, display advertisements, advertiser advertisements, home page advertisements, branded playlists, light boxes and advertiser websites. The size, type and user participation of these advertisements are different. Music commercials run for up to 30 seconds between streaming music songs. Display ads, billboards, light boxes, and active and inactive use of the process appear.

In February 2009, the advertising time of non paying users was 15 seconds. In May 2009, Neowin reported that this had risen to about 30 seconds.

cooperative partner

In January 2015, Sony Announces the launch of PlayStation Music, a new music service with Spotify as its exclusive partner. PlayStation Music integrates Spotify services into Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 game consoles and Sony Xperia mobile devices. The service was launched on March 30, 2015.

In March 2017, Spotify announced the establishment of a partnership with the 2017 South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference to present specific content in special playlists through the SXSW center in Spotify applications. This integration also supports Spotify in the SXSW GO application to help users discover and explore artists performing at conferences. In March, Spotify announced two more partnerships; One cooperates with WNYC Studios and the other cooperates with Waze. The partnership of WNYC Studios has brought a variety of WNYC podcasts to Spotify, including Note To Self, On the Media and Here's the Thing. Spotify also announced that the third season of WNYC Studios' 2 Dope Queens podcast will premiere on March 21, 2017, with a two-week exclusive service period. The Waze partnership allows Waze app users to view the route of their destination in the Spotify app and access their Spotify playlists through the Waze app.

In October 2017, Microsoft Announces that it will end its Groove Music streaming service by December. As part of the new partnership, all music from users will be transferred to Spotify. In December of the same year, Spotify and tencent Music Department of Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) agreed to exchange equity and invest in each other's music business. As a result of this transaction, Spotify obtained 9% shares of TME, and TME obtained 7.5% shares of Spotify.

In February 2018, Spotify integrated the game oriented voice chat service on the desktop client Discord , allowing users to display their currently playing songs as a rich presence in their profile, and inviting other users who use Spotify Premium to group a "song party". In April, Spotify announced its cooperation with video on demand provider Hulu to launch discounted entertainment packages, including discounts for college students.

In May 2020, Spotify, ESPN and Netflix Cooperate to plan podcasts around Netflix Michael Jordan documentaries. In 1998, Spotify signed an agreement with Chernin Entertainment to produce films and TV programs.

Service area

Australia Indonesia Malaysia New Zealand Philippines Singapore Japan Taiwan Hong Kong Andorra Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Monaco Portugal Poland Spain Slovakia Sweden Switzerland Turkey (limited daily listening time, applicable to Premium) UK Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Dominica Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Uruguay Canada US Russia India The People's Republic of China (Since domestic network audiovisual products need to obtain network audiovisual licenses, and there are many restrictions on foreign investment, Spotify has not yet entered the mainland market. In December 2017, Spotify and tencent Music&Entertainment Group holds mutual shares and Tencent Holdings Co., Ltd. holds shares)

Historical Encyclopedia of Spotify Technology (SPOT)

In February 2009, Spotify opened the public registration of free service levels in the UK. After the release of mobile services, the number of registrations surged, leading Spotify to stop free service registration in September, restoring the UK to an invitation only policy. Spotify was launched in the United States in July 2011, with a six-month trial period of advertising support. New users can listen to unlimited music for free. In January 2012, the free trial period began to expire. Users can only play 10 hours of streaming media every month, and each song can only play 5 times. In March of the same year, Spotify lifted all restrictions on the free service layer indefinitely.

In February 2017, Spotify announced a large-scale expansion of its U.S. business at No. 4 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City, adding about 1000 new jobs and retaining 832 existing jobs. The company's US headquarters is located in New York City.

Submitted by Spotify on February 28, 2018 IPO The Prospectus was listed on NYSE by DPO on April 3, 2018, and it is planned to adopt the method of "direct listing" (DPO). Spotify finally started trading three hours after the US stock market opened, Open at $165.90 , published before the New York Stock Exchange Reference price 132 The dollar is 26% higher 。 Opening market value is $29.6 billion In 2014 Alibaba Market value on the first day of listing is 233.9 billion dollars and 2012 Facebook Going to the United States since the first day with a market value of $81.74 billion The third largest technology IPO.

On November 14, 2018, Spotify announced that there were 13 new markets in the Middle East and North Africa, including the creation of a new Arabic center and several playlists, while supporting right to left text in its applications.

On February 16, 2022, Spotify (SPOT) kept the pace of acquisition in the podcasting field and reached a deal with two technology companies: Podlights and Chartable. Podlights is a podcast advertising measurement service. Spotify said it will solve the pain points of measurement and attribution, and help advertisers understand how podcast advertising can promote relevant actions. Chartable is an analysis platform that can help publishers increase audiences by promoting attribution and audience insight. It will enhance the tools Spotify acquired when it acquired Megaphone.

On March 25, 2022, Spotify Technology SA (SPOT) said that Russia invades Ukraine , the company will suspend its services in Russia. Three major record companies Universal Music Group (Universal Music Group)、 Sony Group (Sony Group Corp., Sony) Warner Music Group Warner Music Group (WMG) suspended its business in Russia.

• In May 2013, Spotify acquired Tunigo, a music discovery application.
• In March 2014, Spotify acquired The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company.
• In June 2015, Spotify announced that they had acquired Data Science Consulting company And the analysis company Seed Scientific. Seed Scientific's team will lead a senior analysis department in the company, focusing on developing data services.
• In January 2016, Spotify acquired social and messaging start-ups Cord Project and Soundwave.
• In April 2016, Spotify acquired CrowdAlbum, a company that "collects social networks And will "strengthen product development to help artists understand, activate and monetize their audience".
• In November 2016, Spotify acquired Preact, a "cloud based platform and service developed for companies operating in subscription mode, which helps reduce customer churn and increase the number of subscribers".
• In March 2017, Spotify acquired Sonalytic, an audio detection startup, at an undisclosed amount. Spotify said that Sonalytic will be used to improve the company's personalized playlists, better match songs and works, and improve the company's publishing data system. Spotify also acquired MightyTV in late March, an application connected to TV streaming services, including Netflix and HBO Go, which can recommend content to users. Spotify mainly uses MightyTV to improve its advertising work on the free service layer.
• In April 2017, Spotify acquired Mediachain, a Blockchain A start-up company, which has been developing a decentralized database system to manage media ownership and other metadata.
• In May 2017, Spotify acquired artificial intelligence Niland, a start-up, uses technology to improve user personalization and recommendation.
• In November 2017, Spotify acquired Soundtrap, an online music studio startup.
• On April 12, 2018, Spotify acquired the music licensing platform Loudr.
• On February 6, 2019, Spotify acquired the podcast network Gimlet Media and Anchor FM Inc., aiming to become a leader in the podcast field.
• On March 26, 2019, Spotify announced that they would acquire another podcast network, Parcast.
• On September 12, 2019, Spotify acquired SoundBetter, a music production market for people in the music industry to cooperate on projects and distribute music tracks for licensing.
• On February 5, 2020, Spotify announced its intention to acquire The Ringer, the sports and popular culture blog and podcast network of Bill Simmons, for an undisclosed amount.
• In November 2020, Spotify announced that it planned to acquire Megaphone from The Slate Group for $235 million.
• In March 2021, Spotify acquired application developer Betty Labs and its on-site social audio application Locker Room, which was renamed Spotify Greenroom in June 2021 and became Clubhouse Of competitors.
• In June 2021, Spotify acquired Podz, a podcast discovery startup.
• In November 2021, Spotify (SPOT) reached a final deal with Findaway, the leader of audiobook distribution. The two companies said that this would accelerate Spotify's entry into the field of audiobooks, enable the streaming audio giant to rapidly expand its catalog, and provide publishers, authors and independent creators with new ways to market. The transaction was completed on June 16.
• On February 14, 2022, Amazon (AMZN) and Spotify (SPOT) are considering bidding for the podcast Audioboom listed in London.
• On June 13, 2022, Spotify (SPOT) announced its intention to acquire London based dynamic AI voice platform Sonantic, which can create fascinating, detailed and extremely realistic voice from text to expand its influence in the field of audio technology and open up other potential business opportunities in other places.
• On July 12, 2022, Spotify Technology (SPOT) announced that it had acquired the interactive music quiz game Heardle. Heardle marks the first acquisition of games by Spotify (SPOT). The audio streaming media platform plans to use Wordle inspired games as a music discovery tool.
• On October 5, 2022, Spotify Technology (NYSE: SPOT) said that it had acquired Kinzen, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, as part of its efforts to improve platform security.

Shengtian Spotify Technology (SPOT) US equity investment

What is "direct listing"? It is a bit like "opening a store, hoping that people will stop by. Because the store is open, no one needs to carry out marketing or hold meetings." Direct listing "does not need to let investors create momentum and set the issue price to hold various grand performances of the initial public offering, This means that the issue price of shares will be directly determined by supply and demand.