Spotify sells space for songs in playlists on a test basis
Spotify is testing the possibility for music companies to buy into the streaming service's playlists with their songs. The trial is only running in very small groups of users of the free version in the U.S. and Latin America, Spotify explained on Tuesday.
It is not clear whether the function will be introduced regularly. Users will be given the option to turn it off when testing. In the streaming era, the appearance of a song in the playlists can play a big role in the success of a title.
Spotify has so far always emphasized that these collections of new songs of the week or on certain genres are compiled independently by the music service itself and the places there are not marketed. The free version of Spotify is supported, among other things, by advertising that is played between the songs. Figures for 2016 released last week showed that the Swedish-based music streaming market leader, while growing rapidly, lost 539.2 million euros.
Advertising revenues in the free version increased by a good 50 percent to 295 million euros. But subscription customers still accounted for around 90 percent of revenues. Spotify had a total of 126 million users at the end of the year, 48 million of whom were paying subscribers. (SDA)
