Spotify’s monthly active users increased by 26% year-on-year to 574 million; the number of subscribers increased by 16% year-on-year to 226 million, a net increase of 6 million; total revenue increased by 11% year-on-year to 3.4 billion euros, and gross profit margin reached 26.4%.

“Ad-supported revenue grew 16% year over year (+24% in constant currency), reflecting double-digit year-over-year growth in all regions,” Spotify said.

Music advertising revenue re-accelerated, up nearly 20% year-over-year, driven by increased impression sales and stable pricing. Podcast advertising revenue growth remained in the healthy double-digit range, driven by original and licensed podcasts as well and Spotify Audience Network saw significant year-over-year growth in sales impressions, but this growth was partially offset by soft pricing.”

Spotify has been tight on costs after spending more than €1 billion to build its podcast business, laying off 6% of its workforce earlier this year and raising prices on premium plans in several countries in July.

Spotify, which aims to reach 1 billion users and $100 billion in annual revenue by 2030, expects to have 235 million paying users and revenue of 3.7 billion euros in the last three months of the year.

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Spotify CEO Daniel Ek revealed that Spotify users in the U.K., Australia, and the U.S. will be able to listen to 15 hours of premium audiobooks per month. ek said, “I believe this will bring a new generation of listeners to audiobooks.”

Spotify users will be able to try as many audiobooks as they want from their media library, which includes 150,000 titles from all major publishers, but will be capped at 15 hours of listening time. Beyond that, users can buy an additional 10 hours of listening time for $10.99 (currently around $80).

Spotify has continued to make efforts in the field of audiobooks in recent years, and in 2022 spent $123 million (currently about RMB 899 million) to acquire the audiobook platform Findaway, adding about 300,000 books. However, due to Google and Apple’s in-app purchase restrictions, this means that users can’t actually buy a book on most platforms, and the new model of using subscriptions + listening time is expected to solve this problem.

The Wall Street Journal as reported that people familiar with the matter have revealed that Spotify is working with some of the largest publishers in the U.S. on a pilot program that will offer free audiobook trials to Premium members, with plans to go live in the coming months. Contrary to the official announcement, the outlet previously claimed that subscribers would be able to enjoy up to 20 hours of listening time per month.

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The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill (DMCC) being developed in the U.K. would allow competition authorities to impose behavioral requirements on companies and “promote competition” where a company’s policies “adversely affect competition. “Daniel Ek has long been Daniel Ek has long advocated for legislation that would limit Apple’s ability to offer both a platform (iOS) and apps such as Spotify’s rival Apple Music.

In an interview with the FT, Daniel Ek said Apple and Google’s control over how billions of consumers access the Internet is “insane.”

“Not only do they make the rules, they compete directly with downstream providers,” Daniel Ek said. He wants the UK bill to ensure that companies acting as referees in the digital marketplace “cannot also be players”. The DMCC needs to have “real teeth”, he said, adding that the bill applies to all developers. “More and more developers are now finding Apple to be a competitor.”

If passed, the DMCC would give the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority the power to impose billions of pounds in fines on large companies that break established rules. Tech companies will be required to provide more transparency about how their app stores operate, with the regulator able to open up specific marketplaces such as app stores or search engines.

Spotify is known to have been at odds with Apple for years, with the dispute between the two companies heating up as recently as 2022, when Apple rejected an update to its Spotify app that added audiobook support. As previously reported, Spotify filed a regulatory complaint against Apple’s App Store practices with the European Union back in 2019, which is still under investigation, and the company also supports the Open Markets Act in the U.S., which requires Apple to allow sideloading and alternative app stores.

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A large number of users have reported that Spotify Premium in the Philippines has notified a price hike, with the family group increasing from 194 pesos (about 24.53 yuan) to 239 pesos (about RMB 30.21) per month, and the personal version increasing from 129 pesos to 149 pesos.

According to public information, Spotify is the world’s largest streaming music service provider, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with Universal Music / Sony Music / Warner Music / Kakao M / Tencent Music and other major global record labels have cooperation licenses, with more than 70 million song libraries.

Premium is the paid version and Free is the free version:

• Music quality: Spotify Premium plays at a bit rate of 320 kbit/s+ for better sound quality; Free is only 150kbits/s.
• Listening restrictions: Spotify Premium has no listening restrictions; Free can only play a randomized list of songs, not on-demand, and you can cut songs up to 6 times per hour.
• Ads: Spotify Premium has no ads; Free has ads every three to five songs.
• Cross-country listening: Spotify Premium allows cross-country listening; Free only supports 14 days of overseas roaming, and you need to log in once after 14 days using the IP of the place where you registered.
• Offline listening: Spotify Premium allows you to download as many songs as you want; Free does not support offline listening.

It’s worth noting that Spotify Premium offers four subscription options: Individual, MIni (daily subscription), Family, and Student, with the Family group allowing up to six accounts to use the service together, with no ads, and the ability to choose as many tracks as you want to listen to, as well as download them and listen to them offline.

The post Spotify Premium subscription price hikes in the Philippines, family group to P239 appeared first on TechGoing.

New features:

Blog text transcription

Spotify is launching automatically generated and time-synced transcripts of podcasts so users can read them while listening, or simply read the podcast if they can’t listen to it. While listening to an episode, scroll down in the Now Playing view to find the transcript, then tap the card to follow along full screen while listening to the episode.

Podcast Directory Extension

Spotify earlier announced a podcast catalog feature on Stream On that will allow users to dive into episodes on a specific topic or section, and users can now find the full list of chapters by scrolling down the Now Playing page.

Podcast show page updates

Podcast show pages will start showing more information about the creator, and the About page will include images, descriptions, and episodes of podcast recommendations. The “More Like This” option next to it will provide further suggestions for similar content.

In addition to these new additions, Spotify recently seems to have decided to launch a new service called Supremium at a price of $20 per month, providing 24-bit lossless audio, mixing tools, and 30 hours/month of audiobooks, up from the 10 hours offered by Spotify Premium.

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Open method:

• Click the speaker icon at the bottom of the screen or tap the three-dot menu in a playlist, album, or song to bring up the “Start Jam” option
• Select the device you want to play on, and anyone on the same shared Wi-Fi network will be prompted to join the jam when they open Spotify
• You can also directly invite users to add songs to Jam: turn on Bluetooth and let friends scan the Jam QR code, or use the “Share” function to send links, iMessages, text messages, etc.

Everyone in the Jam can add songs to the queue, see who added which song, and receive recommendations from their own device. The creator can also determine who will be in the jam, change the order of the tracks, or remove songs that don’t fit the vibe.

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Reddit user @Hypixely discovered new evidence of HiFi-level audio in the latest version of Spotify code, but it may cost you $19.99 per month to enjoy it.

The code shows that Spotify will introduce a new Supremium-level subscription service, which Spotify internally calls “Nemo”, and the $19.99 price may be just a placeholder, or it may be real.

The Supreme plan includes:

 24bit lossless music (looks like they're not going to call it HiFi), claiming its "technology is lag- and delay-free"

 Ability to use AI to generate playlists

 You can listen to 30 hours of audiobooks per month, though "Audiobooks are only available to subscribers of the Individual, Duo, and Family plans" (20 hours per month for regular Premium accounts)

 Ability to serve users content by mood, activity and genre

 Advanced advanced mixing tools including:
 - Customize the order of your playlist by BPM beat or groove, or use Smart Sequence to blend the tempo for a "best sequence"
 -Enable Smooth Transitions to seamlessly transition between audio or tracks using set cue points
 - Filter songs in your playlist by mood or genre

 Sound Check: Allows you to "better understand your musical habits" and discover which mixes suit "your unique you."

In fact, Spotify had the idea of supporting HiFi-level audio two years ago, but delayed the launch of the new service because they said “the industry has changed and we have to adapt.”

Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström said this level is still being rolled out, but they want to do it “in a way that makes sense for us and our listeners.”

Spotify spokesperson CJ Stanley said: “At Spotify, we are constantly reflecting and iterating to improve our products and provide value to our users. But we do not comment on speculation surrounding possible new features and timing, and there are currently no Anything new to share.”

Considering Spotify’s existing Premium subscription plan is $10.99, it’s unclear whether a “Supremium” subscription that adds HiFi audio, AI playlists, and other features will be able to support the $19.99 monthly price. After all, both Apple Music and Amazon Music already offer lossless audio support at no additional cost.

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It’s just that the above three plug-ins are not currently open to all users. After upgrading the Canary channel Edge browser to the latest version. These three plug-ins have not yet been found. Currently, Microsoft only invites some users to conduct A/B testing. I believe that more updates will be released in the future. Open to multiple users.

• Adobe Express: Helps users design LOGOs and other images.
• MathSolver: helps users solve complex math problems and equations
• Spotify: The plug-in can help users find and play relevant streaming content while chatting with Bing.

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Spotify spent $123 million to acquire the audiobook platform Findaway in 2022, adding approximately 300,000 books last year. Spotify is using free trials to gauge customer interest in listening to audiobooks.

After acquiring Findaway, Spotify changed its model so that it no longer takes a 50% cut and the Findaway platform charges a 20% royalty, but the company changed its pricing and eliminated Findaway’s distribution fee when users purchase audiobooks through Spotify.

Spotify is challenging Amazon’s audiobook platform Audible, which holds 63% of the audiobook market, according to data revealed by Wordserated.

We believe there will be a huge opportunity for audiobooks in many different formats,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said last year.

The post Spotify plans to roll out free audiobooks to Premium members appeared first on TechGoing.

Judging by user feedback, the notification bubble in Spotify says “Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium” with a link to sign up.

Spotify told The Verge that the feature is just a test, and that it’s currently being tested with a limited number of users in two regions. However, the company didn’t specify which two markets, how many users or how long the test will last.

“At Spotify, we regularly run tests, some of which ultimately pave the way for our broader user experience, while others serve only as an important learning process.” Said CJ Stanley, Spotify’s co-head of global communications, “At this time we have no further news we can share.”

It’s worth noting that Spotify Premium has already undergone a price hike in July of this year, with its subscription fee raised to $10.99 from $9.99 when it was launched in the U.S. in 2011 (currently about RMB 80).

In fact, while Spotify’s subscribers are growing at a record pace, paid subscriptions are not keeping up with that growth, so the company is exploring the possibility of pushing lyrics to paid subscriptions.

In addition, Spotify is continuing to try to attract creators of all kinds, bringing more short videos to the platform, and trying to become “the audio version of TikTok,” as CEO Daniel Ek put it.

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