Spotify announces record profits and margins after cutting royalty rates
Spotify has announced record profits and a huge jump in its gross margin for the second quarter of 2024 – after implementing a change that lowers artist royalties.
The streaming giant saw subscribers jump 12% year-on-year to reach 246 million, while total revenue was up 20% to €3.8 billion (A$6.24b), and the gross margin hitting 29.2%.
“It’s an exciting time at Spotify. We keep on innovating and showing that we aren’t just a great product, but increasingly also a great business,” said CEO Daniel Ek.
We really need to stop screwing over artists. They deserve to be paid their royalties. It was barely anything to start with.
Support the artists – Spotify is nothing without them.
How sustainable is the increase in gross margin?
After two separate $2 increases (a greedy 25%) in just six months I canned my premium duo service. It seems the increase is to fund audiobooks – a service I don’t want and won’t use.
And all the while they’ re attempting to further screw down artists.
The other family member on our duo service saw better value in YT Music and went there – they’re very happy and they’re not coming back to Spotify.
I’m currently bumming it on Spotify free. If Spotify introduce a paid Basic service with just music in Australia I might come back.
But if not I’ll soon be looking for a new *music only* streaming service.