According to a report from Hypebot, music-streaming giant Spotify is now the second largest source of revenue for all major record label companies. Sitting much higher up at No. 1 is, of course, Apple's iTunes.
Below are all the necessary and important facts from the report that explain Spotify's sudden rise to the top--with the top being the No. 2 spot, of couse--so, dig in:
- "Between the two, both iTunes and Spotify pay out roughly the same percentage of revenue to rights holders (iTunes pays out 70% of revenue to rights holders, while Spotify pays out roughly the same percentage of revenue in content costs."
- "Over 23 million people used Spotify last month alone and the service has already been a leading source of revenue for labels in several European countries."
- "... in countries where there isn’t much of a download market (like Sweden or France for instance), Spotify could see a greater share of the pie than iTunes, and could potentially surpass Apple in terms of prominence."
"Apple holds the power to one day create a Spotify-like service of their own at any moment. ... Should they so choose, Apple can easily convince millions of users to sign up to a new service, as it has already forged the landscape in a way that positions this new service on top no matter what rival services have accomplished. Apple will always be more integrated and cheaper than anyone else on the market will, and this is a reality everyone is waking up to."
Even if Apple does create a music streaming service similar to Spotify, taking down the already-large streaming platform won't be easy because, like it or not, Spotify is a force to be reckoned with.
This report could not have come at a better time, really. It was only last week when footage of Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and Sean Parker discussing their plan to kill Apple's iTunes at D10 hit the net. If the streaming service continues to gain ground like it has been since it's U.S. debut, it's quite possible that Spotify could take the throne from iTunes. Only time will tell.
[via Hypebot]
