Items tagged with (nyse:spot)
Microsoft is partnering with Spotify to offer four months of the streaming music service's ad-free Premium subscription tier at no cost to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate customers. It is not quite as long as the six months of Spotify Premium that Microsoft gifted to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate customers around this time a year ago, but hey, free is free, right? "Play all your favorites with access to millions of tracks and podcasts titles. Ultimate members can enjoy ad-free music listening, music + podcast offline downloads, and on-demand listening with Spotify Premium for 4 months," Microsoft stated in a blog post. There are some caveats. You have to be an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber (duh), and...
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A preliminary investigation into a complaint raised by Spotify over Apple's App Store polices has led the European Commission to issue a 'Statement of Objections' against Apple, saying the company "is in breach of EU competition law." It essentially amounts to an antitrust violation, with Apple having 12 weeks to issue a response to the charges. These charges come a little over two years after Spotify filed an antitrust complaint with the European Union. The streaming music service cried foul over Apple's 30 percent royalty rate for purchases made through its payment system, including when users upgrade from Spotify's free tier to a premium subscription. That was not the only gripe, however....
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Apple has long been accused of being anti-competitive, but these accusations may soon be further placed under a microscope. The European Union (EU) is expected to charge Apple over supposed antitrust practices sometime over the next week. The case will likely be based off of the allegations of companies such as Spotify. Spotify argued in 2019 that Apple’s app store policies “[tilted] the playing field to disadvantage competitors.” These practices have included frequently changing app store policies and initially demanding a 30 percent royalty for using Apple’s payment system for subscriptions. Spotify claims that Apple’s practices have forced it to artificially inflate...
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When it comes to music, delivering high-quality sound to your ears can make listening experience much more immersive. If you decide to stream music from Spotify, that quality can vary from song to song depending on several factors. To combat this, Spotify will begin offering Premium subscribers the option to upgrade to Spotify HiFi to listen to songs in “CD-quality, lossless audio format.” Initially announced at Spotify’s Stream On event, the new HiFi service is a way to address the artists and fans who expressed that sound quality is important to them when listening to music. Evidently, it is “consistently one of the most requested new features by our users.” To...
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As of late, Apple has been under siege for its business practices with respect to the App Store. Now that Apple is creating a bundled subscription service for their products, Spotify is joining the dogpile by denouncing Apple as “anti-competitive.” Yesterday, Apple hosted their online event showcasing a new device and a new subscription service called Apple One. This lowest tier subscription, coming in at $15 a month, bundles iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade. It appears Spotify has taken issue with this bundle though. Journalist Peter Kafka received a statement from Spotify during the Apple Event which claimed that Apple was being anti-competitive and “threatens...
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For a few extra bucks per month, Spotify is offering a new Premium Duo streaming music tier aimed at couples who live under the same roof, and who may not necessarily share the same tastes in music. It is a welcome addition, particularly if you find yourself wondering why your carefully curated playlist keeps getting invaded by tracks you have no interest in listening to (like anything by Keith Urban). What the new Premium Duo tier basically amounts to is a bundling of two Premium subscriptions, though what you get is actually a bit more nuanced. Namely, a feature called Duo Mix. "Premium Duo subscribers can listen to their own playlists anytime, individually, uninterrupted, and get access to...
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We already know the upcoming Pixel 4 series will support motion gestures—Google confirmed the "Motion Sense" feature in a short video teaser, along with facial recognition support to unlock the handsets. Now we have a pretty good idea of what specific apps will work with Motion Sense from the get go. One of them is Spotify. Born out of Google's Project Soli, the Motion Sense feature uses radar technology to detect hand gestures. This allows users to perform tasks like skipping tracks or playing the previous one simply by waving their hand in front the phone. Motion gestures could be especially, um, handy (pardon the pun) when working on a car or eating chicken wings lathered in hot sauce,...
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Apple is firing back back at Spotify's antitrust claims in the European Union, saying the streaming music service only pays a 15 percent "app tax" in the App Store on around 680,000 premium tier customers. That works out to just 0.5 percent of Spotify's 100 million premium tier subscribers. Back in March, Spotify filed an official complaint against Apple in the EU, in part because of the company's 30 percent royalty rate for purchases made through the App Store. According to Spotify, if left unchecked, it would be forced to raise its subscription rate for premium subscribers. "Apple requires that Spotify and other digital services pay a 30 percent tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment...
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Spotify is always testing new ways to make its streaming music service more appealing to users. It recently passed the 100 million subscriber mark for its paid premium service. About a year ago, we first heard that Spotify was working on streaming audio gear for the car and this January learned that the in-car streaming device was set to debut in late 2019. Spotify has now directly confirmed that it is testing a car streaming device that it is calling "Car Thing." The streaming audio company says that with Car Thing, it is examining how people listen in the car via voice-controlled music and podcast devices. However, the confirmation throws cold water on rumored Spotify plans for creating hardware...
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Spotify, the largest streaming music player in the world with 100 million premium paid subscribers, is beefing with Apple, which has aspirations of taking the throne. If Spotify is to be unseated, however, it will not be without a fight. Spotify is very much being proactive in its battle with Apple, and has lodged a complaint with the European Union over Apple's business practices. The EU has decided to investigate. The complaint has to do with Apple's App Store policies, with Spotify alleging that Apple is unfairly and illegally "tilting the playing field to disadvantage competitors." Spotify's main issue is that Apple charges digital content providers a 30 percent royalty for using its payment...
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One of the biggest worldwide streaming services just hit a milestone. Spotify recently reported that they boast 100 million Premium subscribers. These 100 million subscribers are barely half of Spotify’s total listernership. Spotify Premium is a music streaming service that offers offline listening, no ads, and unlimited skips for $9.99 USD per month. They also offer student and family discounted plans. The number of Premium subscribers has increased by 32% over the past year and Spotify hopes to reach nearly 110 million subscribers by the end of the current financial quarter. Altogether Spotify has over 217 million listeners in 79 countries. The service recently expanded into India and...
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Good news, music lovers—Spotify is testing a streaming music subscription plan for couples, roommates, best friends, and any other package of two that you can think of (so long as they share the same address). The discounted plan essentially means that a couple does not have to choose between sharing a single plan or shelling out for a family plan, which allows up to five people under the same roof to have their own account. That's the good news. The bad news is, the new Premium Duo tier is only being tested in select areas at the moment, and specifically Chili, Columbia, Denmark, Ireland, and Poland. If you happen to live in one of those areas, though, the Premium Duo subscription runs...
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The partnership between Spotify and Hulu is strengthening today with the announcement of lowered bundle pricing. Last year, the pair announced a discounted bundle that allowed you to receive Spotify Premium and the Hulu Limited Commercials plan for $12.99 per month. Today, that same bundle has been discounted to just $9.99 per month, which means that you're basically getting the Hulu Limited Commercials plan for free with your Spotify Premium subscription. If you already have an active Spotify Premium subscription and don't already Hulu bundled in, you can enable it from "Your Services" within Account Settings. For those that are already taking advantage of the Spotify + Hulu Limited Commercials...
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The Indian market is one of the fastest growing markets for smartphones, internet users, and other electronic devices. The challenge for device makers and services is that the country is extremely price conscious as many in the nation have lower incomes. A low cost strategy is in part why budget smartphone maker OnePlus was able to beat out smartphone juggernauts Apple and Samsung in the Indian market. Music streaming service Spotify has now launched in India, and the launch brings with it the cheapest pricing for the premium tier that Spotify has ever offered. Spotify's monthly premium tier starts at Rs 119, which works out to about $1.67. To compare the U.S. price for the premium tier is $9.99...
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The battle for dominance in the streaming audio segment is heating up with Apple Music and Spotify fighting to be tops in the industry. Last summer reports indicated that Apple Music had passed Spotify in subscriber numbers for the first time. Spotify tried to get some of those subscribers back by trialing a new unlimited ad-skipping feature for its free subscribers. Spotify is now reportedly gearing up to shell out huge money for a podcasting startup called Gimlet Media. Reports indicate that the deal will cost Spotify over $200 million to close. If Spotify can add premium content from Gimlet Media to its offerings, the deal could undoubtedly lure in more subscribers in the fight against Apple....
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A new rumor is going around concerning Spotify's in-car music player that features voice controls. This device was tipped in pop-up ads that some users saw in the app back in April of 2018. That pop-up invited people to pre-order the device. We never heard anything about Spotify's in-car plans after that, but this new rumor claims the device will launch this year. This time out the rumor also includes a price, which is quite steep. The source claims the device will be priced at around $100. That price seems high for a device that does what you can already do with your smartphone in the car. However, people with vehicles that lack satellite radio capability, and tire of connecting their...
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Spotify has become the biggest streaming music service on the planet thanks to its vast artist library and its uncanny ability to learn your taste in music to keep you coming back for more. The company is apparently so confident in its ability to determine what you "like" that it is testing out a feature that will give free tier customers the ability to skip advertisements "any time they want". The company is currently trialing this new feature in Australia, which is a big step up from the way the current free tier works. In its current iteration, free tier listeners [understandably] are unable to skip commercials. After all, Spotify needs users to listen to/watch those commercials to help pay...
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When it comes to digital music, streaming is king. Just a few years ago, it seemed as though we were all resigned to paying 99 cents per song or $10 for individual albums (thanks to Apple's iTunes push). However, the all-you-can-eat streaming music buffet is hard to ignore. We're now learning that Apple Music has surpassed reigning streaming music champ Spotify in U.S. subscriber numbers, which is a huge achievement for the service that launched nearly three years ago. The latest figures come courtesy of Digital Music News, which says that both Apple Music and Spotify have over 20 million paid subscribers in the United States alone. In the case of Apple Music, it is a "hair ahead" of Spotify. ...
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Apple Music and Spotify are in the middle of a battle for paid music subscribers and right now Apple Music is losing. Spotify boasts 70 million paid subscribers to Apple’s 38 million subscribers. Apple Music is growing faster though, and predictions are that Apple could overtake Spotify by the end of 2018. To hold Apple off, Spotify has decided to leverage something Apple can’t -- the free tier of its music service. Spotify currently boasts 90 million free subscribers and that service is essentially a loss leader meant to get users liking the music and then buy a [commercial free] subscription. Spotify is improving that free offering to help lure in more users, and hopes it will eventually...
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Spotify is working on wooing more customers to its free music service by making it easier to use. The rumor comes from people who claim to be familiar with the company's plans. This will be the first major change to the Spotify service since the company went public last week. Spotify maintains that 2 million people are illegally listening to its paid music service. The free service is supported by ads, while the paid service is ad-free. The source of the rumor claims that an announcement of the revised service is expected in the next couple weeks. Exactly what the updated service will feature is unclear, but reports claim that the free mobile listeners will be able to access their playlists faster...
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Spotify fans will be glad to hear that the streaming music giant is set to enter the hardware space with some sort of gadget for the car. Word is that the hardware device will launch on April 24, and the news comes after Spotify was seen posting job openings for "hardware production" workers. Initially many thought that Spotify would be jumping into the smart speaker realm along with seemingly every other tech company. It's now looking like Spotify has something different in store for its gadget. The image you see above is said to have been seen by multiple Spotify users via a pop-up from the Spotify app. It appears to be some sort of smallish puck-like music player that mounts on the dash. The...
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Spotify might be the biggest music streaming service out there right now, but that doesn't mean that it is turning a profit. Spotify has filed with the SEC to allow it to begin selling shares publicly via an IPO. Spotify will be listed on the NYSE and will use the ticker name "SPOT." The filing has shed some insight into what the company might be worth. According to the company, it has been selling shares on private markets for as much as $132.50 per share. That would indicate a value of over $23 billion based on the ordinary shares outstanding as of February 22 reports CNBC. We do know some specifics about Spotify already, with one key metric being subscribers. Spotify boasts 71 million paying...
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