France has introduced a new law that will tax music streamers 1.2 percent of their domestic revenue to support local music. Spotify’s music lead in France and the Benelux region has been railing against the move, and announced on X on Wednesday that the company will pull its sponsorship from two French music festivals.
One user (@robdad_) on TikTok spotted the upcoming feature, which uses AI to generate a playlist based on a prompt, like “get focused at work with instrumental electronica.” Spotify confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s testing the tool.
First spotted by Podnews, new SEC filings indicate that Spotify chief financial officer Paul Vogel and general counsel Eve Konstan exercised options and sold stock worth $9.38 million and $1.15 million, respectively.
On Tuesday, the day after the company announced a layoff of 17 percent of its staff, the stock price hit a high of $199.97, up 10.7 percent compared to its Friday closing price of $180.69. It is possible the sales were automatically triggered by the stock price hitting a certain level. Spotify did not immediately return request for comment.
Code was spotted in Spotify’s iOS app suggesting the service might re-enable in-app payments, but the company says they’re not coming back.
“We have no plans to switch IAP [in-app payments] on at the moment,” Spotify’s global head of corporate and policy communications, Farshad Shadloo, tells The Verge.
Spotify removed the feature in 2016 to avoid Apple’s up to 30 percent commission on digital in-app purchases, and earlier this year migrated old subscribers off the payment method.
Spotify’s stock is currently up about 7 percent following the announcement that the company is laying off 17 percent of its staff. If CEO Daniel Ek is trying to appease investors with a new focus on efficiency, it is working. More than 1,500 of Spotify’s employees will be notified by tomorrow afternoon that they are out of a job.
Or maybe it’s Berkely, CA, or Cambridge, MA, or some other college town. Enough people were confused about Spotify’s latest Wrapped to spur articles in the New York Times and Washington Post, and Spotify is extending 2023’s audio recap season by explaining how they were assigned:
Sound Towns selected for eligible users are made up of two factors: a user’s most-streamed artists of the year, and the way in which those artists are streamed in other cities. It’s objective and driven by a user’s listening history.
If what that has to do with your music listening habits isn’t immediately clear, it also posted the top ten lists for each city. Noah Kahan, Sza, and Lizzy McAlpine took the top three spots in Burlington.
Spotify had a bunch of artists record videos to their fans for its year-end Wrapped lists. Weird Al used his to joke about Spotify payouts from right inside Spotify’s platform.
Can you make an app that’s good for music, podcasts, audiobooks, discovery, library management, and like 100 other things? That’s what Spotify’s trying to figure out. Meanwhile, Disney is out here trying to eat the entire entertainment business one brand at a time. And trust me, friends: it’s going to be called Disney Plus.
TikTok’s main feed now has an “add song” button that lets you save songs to your Spotify Liked Songs playlist. Spotify says both free and paid US and UK members will get it.
If you don’t see it yet, make sure to update both apps and set Spotify as as your default streaming service in the TikTok app (Settings > Music).
Update November 14th, 2023, 11:45AM ET: TechCrunch notes you can also pick Apple Music or Amazon Music.
In a call with investors Tuesday morning, Spotify CFO Paul Vogel said that the company’s podcasting business is on track to (finally) become profitable. This follows a year of deep cuts to the podcasting arm, including the dissolution of Gimlet.
As part of its ongoing deal with Spotify, FC Barcelona is once again featuring an iconic artist on its jersey for the big El Clásico match coming up on October 28th. It all started with Drake last year, but this time around it’s the Rolling Stones. The kits are on pre-sale in a few days if you need to get some satisfaction.
