The evolution of the group's results. You can monitor these quarterly results, paying particular attention to the level of losses and possible future profits because Spotify is not yet cost-effective.
The competition in this sector shouldn't be neglected since the players are growing in numbers and are taking more and more market shares every day.
You should also monitor Spotify's efforts to offer more innovative services and stand out from its competitors by attracting new users.
It also goes without saying that all the partnerships set up by the group which allow it to gain new paying subscribers are excellent indicators.
Finally, you should monitor all the investments made by the company, especially after its IPO.
The Spotify group is a Swedish company specializing in music streaming which operates software and a website. It offers an instant music listening service with a varied and very important catalogue of artists and albums and certain specific functionalities such as the possibility to listen to music offline or create playlists. Spotify also allows users to buy songs or albums directly through a partner merchant website.
The Spotify group has set up a business model which mainly uses advertising revenue. In its free version, advertising spots are broadcast at regular intervals while the user listens to music. Spotify also offers a paid version of its software, without advertising this time and with unlimited listening even offline for € 9.99 per month. It also offers preferential rates for families or for students who can take advantage of the service at a lower cost. Spotify also bases its marketing strategy on various promotional offers throughout the year which allow it to attract new users by letting them discover the software for a small fee during the first months.
The Spotify group counts on contracts signed with major music labels in order to offer its users countless tracks
Spotify is currently the world leader in its sector music streaming. It's also the pioneer in this field, which gives it a certain advantage. But there are also many competitors in this booming industry and it's obviously important to know the main enemies of Spotify and their assets before you start trading this share. Here is the list of Spotify's main competitors:
is of course one of the huge competitors of Spotify. It offers a very varied catalogue of tracks due to quality partnerships and subscription formulas at prices equivalent to those of Spotify. The features of these two giants of music streaming is also very similar.
Amazon's music streaming service is also a serious competitor which has started to develop its on demand music offer after its video on demand in Europe. This service has already been available for several years in the United States.
the third most important competitor of Spotify. Although the number of users of this service is well below the performance of the competitors mentioned above, the platform could gain in functionality and therefore popularity in the years to come.
the music service on demand from the American giant Apple has everything to seduce users. It's considered as the world number two in this sector of activity nowadays just after Spotify and therefore represents a real threat.
formerly for artists wishing to share their music, Soundcloud is currently developing its paid offer with Go Soundcloud, a more traditional streaming platform which could develop extensively in the near future.
In 2016, Spotify set up a unique marketing partnership with the Tinder dating site and application. Thanks to this partnership, Tinder users can now publish a musical title on their dating profile and also listen to and share their favourite songs directly through Tinder and even see the profiles of singles with the same musical tastes.
In 2017, the American video streaming giant Netflix also partnered with Spotify to create an interactive playlist offering users to know what they have in common with the characters in the Stranger Things series. A link set up by Spotify allows users to get the result of this test according to the tracks most frequently listened to on its software.
In 2018 and just before its IPO, Spotify decided to diversify its streaming offer by offering information content thanks to a partnership set up with different publishers. The first service of its kind called Spotlight is a podcast of daily sports and cultural news resulting from a partnership with BuzzFeed. This service, initially available in the USA, could arrive in Europe soon.
Finally, also at the beginning of 2018, Spotify tried to seduce customers in their 40s by setting up a strategic partnership with Atol opticians. When a track from the 70s or 80s is listened to on a Spotify playlist, an add pops up inviting users to go to one of the opticians on the network to have their eyesight tested.
Firstly, the Spotify group enjoys an interesting position in the streaming music market as it is both the pioneer of the industry and the world leader in terms of number of users. This gives Spotify a certain amount of consumer confidence.
Spotify also appeals to both paying and non-paying users because it is easy to use compared to some of its competitors. In addition to the Sartphone application and software for PCs, tablets and other devices, Spotify is web-based and has a user-friendly interface that is both fun and easy to use. Being able to listen to music free of charge and without any subscription is also a real plus for the company, which is then paid for out of the advertising space sold.
Spotify has also understood that using social networks to get known is a good strategy. Spotify's playlists give the platform a social aspect that allows it to both retain existing users and gain new ones.
Spotify isn't going to stop at the services it currently offers and, following the recent launch of a streaming news service, is looking into the possibility of streaming live content and is also expanding its video-on-demand service.
Finally, as far as Spotify's strengths are concerned, it should also be noted that its seniority and experience in this field make it a trusted intermediary for artists and production houses. The group is thus able to negotiate prices with these artists and gain the confidence of advertisers with regard to its advertising space service.
Firstly, Spotify is notorious for paying artists at low prices because its basic service is free, which could be a problem in the long run if its competitors offer higher remuneration.
Secondly, although Spotify's library is very comprehensive, it remains limited due to artists splitting up their catalogues.
It should also be noted that Spotify's business model of pushing users to take out a subscription by reducing access to the free service may lead to a slowdown in the growth of users in the coming years.
Of course, fierce competition from the industry and especially from its growing competitors such as Apple, Amazon and Google could weigh on Spotify's reputation and cause it to lose its number one position in the industry, especially as these companies also enjoy strong popularity in the eyes of the public.
The rise in illegal downloads, despite the procedures put in place to curb this phenomenon, is also a major handicap for companies in this sector who could see their subscriptions decline over time.
Finally, it should be noted that Spotify is not yet making a profit. Reducing its losses and generating new profits is therefore one of the major challenges for the coming years.
To sum up, it's interesting to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the Spotify group in order to determine the chances of growth for the group and therefore for its stock on the stock market.
It was in 2006 that the Spotify AB was born with the creation of the software of the same name. This Swedish-based company was founded by Daniel Ek who was the former technical director of Stardoll along with Martin Lotentzon who is the co-founder of TradeDoubler. The head office of the company is now based in Luxembourg and its research and development centre is in Stockholm. It wasn't until 2008, however, that the Spotify software was released for public access.
The evolution of the financial results of the Spotify group has been rather positive in recent years. If we look at recent financial years, there is an increase in turnover however a decrease in net income. In fact, in 2019, Spotify achieved a turnover of 6.764 billion euros, an increase of 28.62% compared to 2018. But with regards to its net profit, it was -186 million euros in 2019, i.e. 58.76% of additional deficit compared to 2018.
There isn't really a great time to buy shares in a company like Spotify. You must make sure that its chances of rising are particularly high in fact before buying these securities. In order to do so, you'll need to use both technical and fundamental analysis and compare the signals obtained.