Whether the music industry likes it or not, streaming has become the predominant force for fans to listen to music.
Some of us will remember the era of Napster and what a contentious issue it was around the business. It was a classic case of an industry falling behind on the times and not doing enough to catch up. Fast forward to the present day, where companies like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora and many others are taking a big share of the listening base. Need solid proof of these company’s impact on the market? Take a look at Spotify’s new value.
According to sources with Reuters.com, Spotify has recently earned a value of 13 billion dollars. Along with their new valuation, Spotify has also announced that they will be the first large company to do a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange when the company goes public. This is a very unique process as the norm is to do a traditional initial public offering (IPO). For details behind the announcement, I will allow the people at Reuter’s explain how IPO’s work and why Spotify’s is so unique.
In regards to music listeners and fans of dance music, this is a definite sign of the times. Dance music fans have always been amongst the first groups of people to adopt new technologies for sharing and playing music. Spotify has been an essential tool for artists and fans alike to share music all over the globe.
For Spotify, this shows their confidence in the company’s long term future. You wouldn’t let your company go public in a very unorthodox way if you didn’t feel like the company was trending in the wrong direction. Time will tell how this move works out for Spotify but one thing is clear, streaming music is big business and it doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.
H/T: Dancing Astronaut
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