The heated battle between music streaming services continues to attract attention, as fans wonder if their platform of choice will end up winning out. No one wants to be the guy who sunk hundreds of dollars into a HD-DVD or Betamax player, only to have rendered useless. Spotify is currently the top dog (at least in terms of total users), but they are reportedly still posting losses. The Europe-based streaming service lost roughly $192 million in 2015.
Thanks to a report from the Wall Street Journal, we've learned that Spotify had a very strong overall 2015. Their total revenue was up by 81%, making for an end-of-year gross of around $2.17 billion. However, the service also increased their royalty payments to artists and their labels, which offset the increase in revenue. However, with over 30 million paying subscribers and many, many more free users, the site has a massive user base at its disposal. The question is, can they turn a profit?
With Spotify introducing video content, we’ll see if 2016 makes the battle between Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal (mostly Apple Music and Spotify though) any clearer. Apple has the upper hand with their already successful consumer electronics business, but Spotify is entrenched and their investors are not shying away from spending money.
[via WSJ]