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Spotify partners with music labels for responsible AI
Spotify announced that it will be partnering with Sony Music Group, Universal Warner Music Group and independent licensing agency Merlin and digital music company Believe to create “responsible” AI products. While the music streamer did not confirm any specific AI tools in development, it did say it was making “significant investments in AI research and product development”, including a new AI research lab and product team in a release. “At Spotify, we want to build this future hand in hand with the music industry, guided by clear principles and deep respect for creators, just as we did in the days of piracy,” Spotify co-president and chief product and technology officer Gustav Söderström said. “Our company brings deep research expertise to this opportunity and we’re actively growing our AI team.” Spotify said it hopes to add more distributors and rights holders in the future. The announcement comes amid tension between the music industry and big tech firms, leading to three major labels suing AI companies whose tools create music from user prompts. It also comes less than a month after Spotify cracked down on “AI slop” on its platform under the rising threat of viral AI-generated music. The partnership also c
Music
Spotify raises subscription prices, adds new features
Spotify is gearing up to raise subscription prices as it invests in new features and targets 1 billion users. The news was first reported by the Financial Times, who were told price rises were part of Spotify’s “toolbox” after years of keeping them flat by the co-president and chief business officer of the streaming giant, Alex Norström. Spotify didn’t introduce price hikes until two years ago. The move, alongside cost-cutting, led to the company’s first annual profit in 2024. Prices are set to rise to 11.99 euros (A$14.05) from 10.99 euros in markets including South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. Last month, the major music streamer reported that subscriber numbers rose 12% in the past year to 276 million and monthly active users were up 11% to 696 million, despite reporting a net loss for the second quarter. “Over a quarter of a billion subscribers are currently paying us every month and just using us more and more,” Norström said. “Are we for a billion? . . . I definitely think it’s not impossible at all. It’s certainly a goal.” Norström said Spotify will continue to invest in AI, including the AI DJ. While details aren’t finalised, the company is also w
Music
Spotify shares drop following Q2 earnings release
Spotify’s stocks fell more than 11% following the release of its Q2 results on Tuesday. While the music streaming platform posted a 10% rise in year-on-year revenue, it also announced a net loss of 86 million euros or a loss of 42 euro cents per share. This is down from a net income of 225 million euros or 1.10 euros per share a year ago. According to Spotify, higher personnel, marketing and professional services costs and 115 million euros of what it called social charges contributed to the results. Third quarter guidance also fell short of Wall Street’s forecast, with the company expecting revenues to reach 4.2 billion euros, compared to an estimate of 4.47 billion euros from StreetAccount. While Spotify fell short in financial results, paying subscribers for the streaming platform climbed 12% year-over-year to 276 million, with streams on its Spotify AI DJ almost doubling. However, artists are protesting the Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek and his investments in AI by pulling their music from the platform. Artists' protests also come as a new band, Velvet Sundown, gained media attention after gaining millions of listeners and being confirmed to be mainly AI-generated after widespread speculation. As well as investin
Music
Investors tune out as record Spotify profit disappoints
Spotify Technology has announced a big lift in earnings for the first quarter (Q1) of the 2025 financial year but its share price dived as the results were below expectations. The digital music, podcast and video streaming service said operating income jumped 203% to a record €509 million (A$906 million) in Q1 but this was below guidance due to €76 million in social charges. Spotify said gross profit rose 32% to €1.36 billion as gross margin improved by 400 basis points to 31.6% on revenue which increased 15% to €4.2 billion, which was in-line with expectations. Subscribers increased 12% to 268 million as monthly active users (MAUs) jumped 10% to 678 million, in line with expectations for a seasonally-small quarter.Source: Spotify“Today, we announced our first quarter 2025 earnings, starting the year off strong by outperforming across key metrics, including the highest Q1 subscriber net adds since 2020 and a record high operating income,” the company said in a media release. “We are pleased with our performance in Q1, as nearly all of our KPIs (key performance indicators) were in-line [or] ahead of guidance.” Founder and CEO Daniel Ek said the underlying data was very healthy with high engagement, strong retention a
Music
Vinyl Group will acquire Concrete Playground for $5m
In a $5 million deal, Vinyl Group, an ASX-listed music company, will acquire Concrete Playground, a digital city guide. The deal consists of $3.5 million in cash and $1.5 million in Vinyl Group stock. An immediate financial boost is expected. In 2024, Concrete Playground is expected to generate at least $1.5 million in EBITDA and more than $4 million in unaudited revenue. Founded in 2009, Concrete Playground provides city guides and curates local events, experiences, and trends in cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, and Wellington. Vinyl Group aims to increase operational efficiency, diversify its commercial footprint, and broaden its client base with Concrete Playground. Vinyl Group CEO Josh Simons said the acquisition will elevate their capabilities and fast-track sustained profitability. Simons said: “We are looking forward to working with Rich and the Concrete Playground team to complete this acquisition in early 2025. They’ve built a trusted platform that audiences genuinely love, and their approach to storytelling will be a natural fit with our broader media strategy. "Operationally, this acquisition will be significant for Vinyl Group - it would not only elevate our capabilities but also fas

Music
Spotify sounds out boost to video podcasts, AI features
Spotify unveiled its plans to supercharge its video podcasting sector at its Now Playing event last week, as engagement with video podcasts and Spotify’s profitability both continue to grow. The number of video podcast series on Spotify has now topped 300,000, and more than 250 million users have watched video podcasts on the platform. “We have been steadily investing in video because of its growing popularity on our platform, and we’ll always focus on things that we believe will make Spotify an even more powerful destination for creators and listeners,” said Maya Prohovnik, Spotify’s vice president of podcast product.Press play: Spotify's pivot to videoSpotify revealed a new slate of tools last week aimed at boosting the growth of video podcasts on the platform. Spotify is adding a number of features to make its video experience more user-friendly, including personalised video recommendations, thumbnail scrubbing, and a comments section. Users will be able to stream videos in both the foreground and background of the app. “They can begin an episode while getting ready for the day, watching in the foreground before slipping their phones into their pockets to continue listening in the background as they commute,” accord
Music
Labels declare war on AI's unauthorised use of music
It’s a battle that could decide the future of popular music. The world’s three largest record labels are locked in a pair of lawsuits against artificial intelligence companies Suno and Udio, accusing them of copyright infringement. Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group filed these lawsuits in the United States in June, and have argued Suno and Udio unlawfully used these labels’ work to produce AI-generated music.What’s in the lawsuits?Suno and Udio can create songs from text prompts. Sony, Universal, and Warner allege that these companies’ AI models were trained on their copyrighted recordings to do so, without permission. “For Suno specifically, this process involved copying decades worth of the world’s most popular sound recordings and then ingesting those copies into Suno’s AI model so it can generate outputs that imitate the qualities of genuine human sound recordings,” the suit against Suno says. The labels are seeking damages of up to US$150,000 for each copyrighted recording Suno and Udio allegedly infringed upon. The suits argue Suno and Udio have copied from 662 and 1,670 of these labels’ songs, respectively. “This is a whole industry stepping up, in effect, and looking at who is going to s