Another Spotify Exec Steps Down: Report
Paul Brown, Spotify’s SVP of Strategic Partnerships, is leaving the European streaming music service after 18 months, according to Billboard. Brown is the second member of the Spotify team to announce his departure this week; Rasmus Andersson, Spotify’s head of design, said he is leaving the company to join Facebook. Late last month, Billboard reported that Spotify remains confident about a U.S. launch later this year, though its Stateside licensing deals with major labels may make for a different service than the “freemium” model the company markets abroad.
Setback For Spotify’s U.S. Prospects
Spotify, the European streaming music provider, is approaching its licensing negotiations with U.S. labels entirely anew, in efforts to launch some version of its proposed “freemium” service Stateside before the end of the year, according to Billboard. The music trade magazine’s sources say negotiations “have reverted back to square one.”
Hailed as a pioneering model for digital music distribution, Spotify’s proposed mix of free ad-supported streams and paid subscriptions threatens to be a non-starter with labels in the U.S. — even as the likes of Apple and Google are rumored to be hashing out details with labels for their own streaming music services.
More analysis at All Things Digital, which raises the question of whether all four major label groups, or just some of them, are holding up the Spotify launch.
Spotify Still Stymied By Licensing Negotiations In U.S.
It turned out to be just a rumor that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek would use his March 16 keynote at South by Southwest to announce that the streaming music service would be expanding from Europe to the U.S. The executive said that the service currently has about 7 million users, around 320,000 of whom pay for a subscription to opt out of audio and display ads. By CNET
Sony Music’s Digital Exec Bullish On Spotify, Other Models
Spotify is crawling through licensing negotiations in the U.S., though one influential executive likes its chances of actually launching stateside. When asked whether he would bet $10 for or against the arrival of Spotify in the U.S., Sony Music Entertainment president of Global Digital Business and US Sales & Corporate Strategy Thomas Hesse put his money down. “I would bet $10 for Spotify launching in the U.S.,” Hesse said during a keynote interview at the Digital Music Forum in New York Feb. 23. “They have a lot going for them.” By Digital Music News
Spotify CEO: U.S. Launch Is ‘Looking Pretty Good’
In making sure people understand its digital music subscription product, Spotify is reaching out to everybody from labels and publishers to artists and managers. “This is a huge market,” company CEO Daniel Ek told Billboard at an industry conference in Los Angeles. “We want to make sure we do it right.” By Billboard
Spotify Staffing Up For U.S.
The much-anticipated music streaming service had pushed back its launch from Q3/Q4-2009 to Q1/Q2-2010. But Spotify’s global business development head Faisal Galaria is now hiring for New York-based business development execs. By paidContent
Spotify’s Freemuim Model Won’t Cut It In U.S., Say Labels
Major record labels in the U.S. remain concerned that the much-hyped Spotify would be able to convert users of a free, ad-supported music streaming service into paying subscribers, according to an FT.com report. “As an ad-supported service,” one label exec tells the website, “the economics don’t work at all.” By FT.com
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