Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman all-but-dismissed Spotify as a licensing possibility in the US on Tuesday, and that is stirring speculation of a broader, worldwide catalog pull.
Not so, according to Spotify. The company is now attempting to tamp-down speculation of a broader divorce outside of the US. “To be clear WMG is not pulling out of Spotify. Media is taking things out of context,” Spotify tweeted. “So don’t worry-be happy :)”
Bronfman seemed to be referring to a new licensing deal in the United States, and existing deals are probably okay. Then again, Bronfman is chairman of the global enterprise, and a broader pullout is certainly not out of the question.
In pockets of Europe, Spotify is showing important progress on premium, though the broader percentages are still discouraging. At Midem, Spotify chief Daniel Ek shared a premium subscriber number of 250,000, a number that approaches just 4 percent of the broader userbase.