So, is that good news, or bad news? This finding comes from an exhaustive survey that ultimately involved nearly a million respondents. This section, conducted by none other than EMI through its Global Insights research group, focuses on what people have actually heard of.
“If you walk out and talk to someone on the street, it’s very likely you’ll get a response like this,” EMI’s Renato Granieri told an audience at SXSW on Thursday.
“Two people in three, have never heard [of Spotify]. So are we focusing on the right channels?”
Interesting question. The news comes right on the heels of another Spotify milestone: on Tuesday, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek boasted 6 million paying subscribers, with 24 million active users.
But is that good? In the same session, media analyst Mark Mulligan deflated the balloon by pointing to some serious growth challenges. For starters, a massive number of first-time Spotify users abandon the app, with the number of remaining free and paying subscribers just a fraction.
Indeed, retaining and adding subscribers is a seriously impressive feat. “For every 400,000 customers that Spotify kept, they lost 1.5 million,” Mulligan observed while presenting year-2011 financial and subscriber data. “They had to get 1.9 milion customers a month just to hold 400,000, and they’re giving away free music.”
“Any subscription business is a churn-heavy business. Rhapsody is spending a lot of effort just to stay still.”
And, Spotify isn’t the fastest-growing streaming platform, not by a long shot.
Good news.
They’re too busy on the pirate bay. Spotify? What’s that?
Just to give some perspective on those ten year old stats for Last.fm: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/04/last-fm-reports-loss?INTCMP=SRCH
That was a couple of months before they decided to no longer have the option for people outside the US/UK/Germany to get a payed subscription.
*Mumbles something about Hardlopers zijn doodlopers*
Just say , a few of latinoamericans know spotify, we are under the control of itunes, and thats bad.
as I been saying, Spotify = win.
Most everyone worldwide are only interested in free radio. They are not interested in actively searching and managing a so-called unlimited library. Look around and what do you see among friends and family members.
If apple iTunes was a Swedish corporation, it would be that country’s national badge of honor instead of Spotify.
This is great news for future growth of the service.
What about Deezer?
Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I recall a meeting I had in London about four years ago in which the nice lady on the other side of the table had never heard of iTunes. Wouldn’t have minded so much except it was in the offices of a major label and she worked in the marketing department!
Whoa, we were just talking this same subject up to a colleague. A lot of online is hype and unless one undertstands the original model of industry business, online is sheer madness. Only a hand full of people are making money and not the artst, we see the numbers. Lots of lawsuits on copyright infringement going on right under our very eyes. Spotify, MySpace, they wer all supposedly the new frontier.