It’s an interesting time in The Streaming Wars (as the Seth Rogen-directed 2020 film about this period will no doubt be named).
Spotify are in the lead up to their direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange, which is expected to happen in the next few weeks.
Apple Music’s subscriber base has exploded of late, toppling 36 million worldwide users, with the Wall Street Journal predicting that by mid-year they will be the market leader in the US.
And now, Spotify are offering US customers two months of free Premium access.
It seems like a way to (artificially) bolster subscriber numbers ahead of the Stock Exchange listing, and a way to cut off Apple’s growth at the… core?
Regardless of ostensible intentions, it seems like a straight up panic move – Spotify’s first after years of being market leaders, offering paltry royalties sums, and basically holding the industry to ransom.
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