At the annual CES convention this past week we were introduced to a variety of new tech developments, innovations and proposals. We also learned a few new facts about Spotify and their plans coming into the new year regarding Podcasts.
The service now has over 200 million users, a notable twice the size of the next competitors, in which have avenues to up-sell and on sell with existing services and technology products such as Amazon with Alexa & Prime, and Apple Music with their phones, MacBooks and watches which all build intuitively with Apple Music.
The milestone means a 9 Million increase in users since November when it was revealed they had 191 million followers. However, it is reported that 109 million of those are only on ad-supported free tiers. Meaning more than 50% of the users are paying artists with ad views and listens, a method that pays out less than that of paid users streaming the same song and a bad thing for artists, but still better than YouTube.
Spotify noted that it’s future plans are built around trying to grow its market share in new regions and those who haven’t embraced it, such as in 2018 launching in South Africa and the Middle East. India will be the next big market for streaming music dominance which will have the potential to allow artists a way to tap into a market that is otherwise dominated by Savvn and is speculated to be a leverage tool for the major labels.
“We’ve said all along, we want to focus on growth, We believe in being a profitable company, but first and foremost we have to grow and get to regions of the world that still don’t have Spotify. There are still parts of the United States where Spotify is not widely used. So I think the company has done a great job of prioritizing growth and making the service better, because there’s a lot of competition and we’re only as good as the user thinks we are so we have to continue to enhance our service.”
Further to their portfolio, they demonstrated that Podcasts which are mostly funded by private advertisers currently will become a major focus for the company in coming months and will include more original shows and improvements to the functions and user interface on the Podcast section of the Spotify App.
“We believe there is a future – a significant opportunity in podcasts. It’s a game-change.”
Be sure to check out our Playlist and Podcasts sections to see our favourite shows in Music, True Crime, Comedy and much more.
