According to Russian news agency TASS, Spotify has pulled out of the region and is closing its Russian office.
Back in April, Spotify hired Alexander Kubaneishvili to head its operation in Russia. Kubaneishvili was hired away from Google Moscow, where he was head of advertising. Ouch.
Kubaneishvili blamed the closure of the office on Russia’s recession, politics, and laws governing the internet. His last day at Spotify is February 12th.
Nina Ulloa covers breaking news, tech, and more. Follow her on Twitter: @nine_u
Image by Moscow Press and Information Office of the President of Russia.
prolly the old merikkans gave spotify an ultimatum, since the good ol u s of the a’er is the only place in the world they figure it should be all them and only them, and since they have Russia on some sanctions for their world thugging, meanwhile they thugging constantly on the steady, but hey, who cares about the individual right, society is more important, so the hypocritical merikkkans will keep on gooning like they own the world, which is fine, i really couldnt care any less, but its likely that, lets keep punishing the Russians, which works out well at the pumps anyways, so that helps me, otherwise, sometimes, i mean, sometimes its like the way those merikkkans do business and treat people, it feels like running up in the head office of some of those labels or networks like those russians did in ukraine and just strong arming resignations is about all that can be done sometimes, i know id sure love to roll like that, but i wont, im just observing the shows, certainly no interest in participating…
Do you honestly think the U.S, government gives a rats ass if Spotify is in Russia?
Even accepting the premise that the U.S. government somehow convinced Spotify to shut down in Russia, do you think Russian citizens are suffering because they can’t get Spotify?
Hahahaha genius awnser Bandit!! Two tumbs up man!!
That last post, courtesy of Sarah Palin.
once again the people of russia paying a price for dickhead leadership.
with that said atleast ol vlad p can see that GMOs are poison garbage.
Vladimir Putin = George W Bush lite.
As Russia is one of the strongholds of internet piracy, maybe that is the problem? Spotify won’t get many paying subscribers, and I doubt if there is much of an advertising market either (correct me if I’m wrong).
Absolutely right. It is the center of most new pirate cites plus there is little to no enforcement so most Russian citizens are very comfortable using the pirate sites. If Spotify would have done 2 minutes of market research, they would have known that there is no way a Russian citizen will pay 663 RUB for music they can download for free without consequence.
Unless, of course, the citizen actually has a conscience. Some do.
Who can blame them? Russia is not a place to invest anything into right now. Very sad conditions there for the good people, but the corruption and lawlessness, not to mention imperialist thuggery, are out of control.