• 2018 Q4 earnings
    • 2018 Q4 started Google home promo
    • ARPU down trend driven by product max and market mix as intl market outpacing others
    • LTV remains constant, where is the number?
    • Stock price decline resulted in significant reduction of social costs
  • 2019 Q2 earnings
    • Roll out Spotify Lite to 38 markets
    • Partner with Higher Ground
    • Major label license renewals: 6th round in 13 year
    • Start mentioning podcasts
  • https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/20/02/15270701/analysts-not-worried-about-spotify-say-2020-will-be-an-investment-year
    • 2020 be the investment year: podcast acquirement, 2-sided marketplace; pressure on gross margin
  • https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/02/05/technology/05reuters-spotify-tech-results.html
    • subs: Apple music 60m, Amazon 55m
  • https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cardi-b-record-label-warner-223201191.html
    • Apple and Spotify accounts 27% of 2019 total revenue of Warners Music the label company
  • https://forum.stratechery.com/t/spotifys-earnings-podcasts-and-lifetime-value-the-ringer-acquisition/44291
    • Is there a premium podcast plan that remove all ads? They are numbingly repetitive
    • At same time, in-program ads are vouchers from podcasters (sometimes), in contrast to the real-time insert ads
    • Spotify podcast move is more like Yahoo to own directory than Google to own Internet
  • https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/spotify-and-podcasts-stuck-in-the-middle-without-you-f561e81d8514
    • Advertisers generally want access to either really targeted niches (direct response/targeted ads) or really broad populations (brand/mass market).
    • Should aim at max reach (i.e. open access) instead of exclusivity
  • https://forum.stratechery.com/t/spotifys-podcast-aggregation-play/21471/3
    • podcast is basically RSS of MP3 files, one can’t track number of downloads, or how far people listen to the audio, etc
    • it is also the last open standard that industry is trying to convert into walled garden for profit
      • how about traditional RSS? doesn’t seem to be monetize enough
    • podcast is like TV, I know you saw the same ad if we listen to the same audio because podcast host manage the ad and everybody listens to the same ad
    • current podcast ads are still brand/marketing ads: “people who are like X enjoy consuming Y”, which requires some common grounds among consumers that everyone knows if I consume Y then we are like X; this doesn’t exist in targeted ads (e.g. FB or Google)
      • are TV ads still that broad, i.e. people would see the same ad if they watch the same program?
    • what is the benefit for podcast listeners? maybe spotify can drive new content that attracts listeners
      • besides this, spotify can maybe provide premium plan that remove ads for listeners
  • https://forum.stratechery.com/t/spotify-and-podcasts-follow-up-apple-and-podcasts-luminary-and-himalaya/21752/9
    • podcast probably doesn’t need data as granular as what FB gets to monetize thru ads, because podcast subscription usually already tells a lot about listeners

A question: How is copyrights done in international countries? And is there any localization in terms of music available in Spotify?

The difference between Google’s play on web and Spotify’s on podcast is, Google did provide a much better and easier user experience to consume web (information), but Spotify hasn’t (yet) brought such life-changing user experience to podcast world.

The difference between Netflix and Spotify is also similar. Netflix provides a much better way to consume videos and shows, comparing with traditional TV.

Google is ad supported, but Netflix is subscription model. However, Netflix was able to pull it off because (1). content companies are willing to sell their shows to basically boostrap Netflix; (2). Netflix spends big in original content production with hit shows.

It is unclear how Spotify can provide a revolunionary user experience to podcast yet. There is also no hit podcasts that Spotify can acquire to boostrap their podcast audience.

The only way Spotify can boostrap (and maybe grow) their podcast pie is to convert current subs from music to podcast. One issue about this is then music and podcast are competing for subs finite time, hence LTV. This also means Spotify goes to premium approach, i.e. podcast is exclusive and attracts subs, but then this decreases its value to podcasters because its reach is by definition smaller than open platforms.