1 – Spotify reaches 100 million users
Spotify reached the milestone of 100 million paying users – 217 million in total – and positions itself as the largest music streaming service despite fierce competition (hello, iTunes). This represents a 32% increase compared to last year. However, this does not mean profitability. The service still recorded losses of US$ 142 million in the first quarter of the year.
2 – Spotify is about to enter the hardware world
Spotify is about to enter the hardware world. The music streaming service will launch an intelligent voice assistant for cars, which will also help the company understand how people consume audio while driving. As a testing phase, some Premium users will receive one for free.
3 – Dear listeners
With a well-structured freemium model and an extensive list of agreements with record labels, Spotify has become synonymous with music streaming. But with the dominance it already holds over users' earbuds and keeping an eye on behavioral trends, the company has been working to establish itself as a reference in the podcast space as well.
The company has been including this type of content in its playlists for some time now, but this week it decided to take another step in that direction: it acquired two major players in the sector — Gimlet Media, an online podcast production company, and Anchor, a startup whose mission is to enable anyone to become a producer of their own content.
And Spotify's appetite seems far from satisfied. The company says it has an additional US$ 500 million earmarked for acquisitions in the sector.
In a post on the company's blog, Spotify's CEO and founder said he never imagined operating in this space when he founded the company 11 years ago, but that today it feels like the most natural path forward. A clear lesson on the constant need to adapt.