- Spotify “double” on its music offer in 2025, explains CEO Daniel Ek
- This could include a long-awaited hi-fi level for super-favors and audiophiles
- Critics of the Spotify payment model say things could get worse for artists
Spotify plans to “double” on its musical offer after reporting its very first profits in the full year – but what exactly means for subscribers?
As Variety reported, the CEO of Spotify, Daniel Ek, praised his business performance during a call for results this week, saying that “Spotify is not only an excellent product – it’s now also An excellent business “, adding that” we will double music on music in 2025, and I am personally very excited about this. “
These days, the musical streaming service has a total of 675 million active subscribers, 260 million of which are premium submarines on the level without advertising-helped, as always, by an advertising blitz at the end of the year Via Spotify wrapped that added 35 million new active users.
Analyst Jeff Wlodarczak is expecting Spotify’s operational margins will not increase even more this year, with increasing growth of subscribers alongside the more stringent monetization of the company.
Double music could Be a good thing for subscribers, if they finally get a spotify Hi -Fi level to access a better quality and loss -free audio – Tidal or Apple Music – that the company has promised for years.
I expected it to be a little more expensive than the current premium plan, which is accompanied by $ 11.99 / £ 11.99 / $ 13.99 to an individual subscription, probably twinned with advantages And additional bonuses for big music fans – perhaps have access to certain tracks and albums in front of other users, or enjoy more organized reading lists. This is probably an easy way for Spotify to monetize heavy users while removing a big reason to move on to another loss-free audio platform.
Spotify has focused a lot on its podcast activities in recent years, perhaps to the detriment of its musical offer, but this last declaration of EK suggests that the hi-fi level could finally occur in 2025. This could also mean that we obtain cheaper and cheaper music of music -only that was teased in 2024.
But is that the whole story here?
Where is the money going?
It was a great year for Spotify, but all its success is not just about increased subscribers.
The company also dismissed 20% of its workforce in 2024 with the aim of taking a stricter control of its finances, and introduced some other costs to reduce costs that some consider that having been essentially transmitted to artists and musicians to bear.
At the beginning of 2024, Spotify decided that artists attracting less than 1,000 flows per month via his platform would no longer be monetized. Given that artists receive only $ 0.004 per flow, $ 4 per thousand flows, it may seem a small amount per person, but it also represents a huge cash seizure far from those who already have trouble gaining income service.
Last year, last year reports claimed that Spotify filled your recommendations with “ false artists ” of production companies that did not need the same level of fees – effectively filling the saw reading lists wood so that you did not notice the lack of bread.
Another feature, called Discovery mode, also invites artists to reduce Their profits in exchange for being pushed algorithmic to more users.
Measures like these have helped Spotify to move with confidence in the green, but its plans to further increase its beneficiary margin in 2025 – already built on reduced payments for artists – are real concern.
It was the first year that Spotify wrapped included a summary of the AI of listening habits of the user, and as the music of AI becomes more widespread, there is a very real fear that it could be The next step to make Spotify more profitable, offering a generated music that does not do not require payment as part of various lists of ambient music reading, replacing the artists’ flows that must be paid.
I fully believe that Spotify “doubles” on music – but I hope it means helping me double on the real artists I love, not to Spotify double to bring your own music at low cost to help keep them high profits.
