Discussion Board

Module: Business English for Exchange Students - ENG5A1

Professor: Marianna Goral

Student: Giovanna Tibery

 QUIZZ 1

Spotify was developed in:

a) North America

b) Brazil

c) Sweden

d) Italy

e) France
 THE COMPANY
• Provides unlimited acess to
25m songs
• Streaming service

• Spotify cofounder is Daniel Ek

• Founded 11 years ago

• Valued at least $8.5bn

• Has tens of millions more

users than Apple Music
• 50 million user are paying
subscribers
 QUIZZ 2

Which of the statements is correct:

a) Daniel Ek manages a lot of restaurants

b) Daniel Ek hates heavy metal

c) Daniel Ek’s favourite color is green and this is the reason why Spotify’s logo is also
green

d) Daniel Ek started his first company at the age of 14

e) Daniel Ek have studied film and TV for 2 years

MUSIC INDUSTRY
OVERVIEW
 INNOVATING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
BEFORE:

• Last decade: illegal download sites (The Pirate Bay)

• Unsure
• Needing something to reheat the business

AFTER:

• New content for customers

• New opportunities for artists
• Paying music-subscribers increased from 8 million (2011) to 28 million (2014)
• Digital album sales and CD album sales are decreasing
Nielsen (2014) did an overview of the music industry:

People are now stream rather than

buying music
ing
RIVALS
STAKEHOLDERS
Who else is Spotify affecting?
 QUIZZ
What is the biggest on-demand streaming music service
in the world?

Dredge (2014) provided

information for the visit.
 FUTURE?
Experts expectations

”A Goldman Sachs research note, Music in the Air, projects that streaming will help revenues
double to $104bn by 2030.”

Helmore (2017) provided

information for the visit.

PROFIT ?
 REFLECTION AND OPINIONS
FACTS:

• Spotify and rivals have not

reported a profit

• Spends with royalty and

distribution fees

OPINION:

• Spotify should go public

(IPO) Financial risks Probability of
(Volatile) making profit
• Solid business model
 REFLECTION AND OPINIONS

APPLE’S AMBITIONS: REACTIONS:

• Acquiring new 1) To invest in market

companies researches

2) To discover and invest in

start-ups

3) To acquire promising
companies
REFLECTION AND OPINIONS
The struggle goes beyond direct rivals:
 REFLECTION AND OPINIONS

“Spotify is rumoured to making a move into

streaming video”

• Awareness

• Relability on the company

• High penetration in the music industry

• Resources and know-how guaranteed

 Q&A

? ? ?

? ? ?
? ? ?
 QUESTIONS

1. Considering the challenges, what could you recommend as the Spotify’s next
step?

2. What do you expect for the next 10 years in the music industry? Growth?
Innovations? New plataforms? Describe a short scenario

3. Do you think that Spotify is only about music or is it possible to provide

another contents (movies, for example)? Why?
 REFERENCE LIST
IFPI (2017) ’Global Music Report 2017 – Annual State of the Industry’. Available at:
http://www.ifpi.org/downloads/GMR2017.pdf (Accessed: 30 September 2017)

Helmore, E. (2017) ’Spotify hopes going public will cement streaming as music’s future’, The Guardian,
May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/27/spotify-ipo-stock-market-
daniel-ek (Accessed: 1 October 2017)

Nielsen (2014) ’Nielsen Entertainment & Billboard’s 2014 mid-year Music Industry Report’. Available at:
http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/public%20factsheets/Soundscan/nielsen-music-
2014-mid-year-us-release.pdf (Accessed: 2 October 2017)

Dredge, S. (2014) ’Spotify: five big challenges looming for the streaming music service’, The Guardian,
May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/21/spotify-five-big-challenges-
streaming-music (Accessed: 3 October 2017)

Dean, J. (2013) ’Let a Billion Streams Bloom’, Fast Company, (November), pp. 104-127. Available at:
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=e561dceb-08b9-44dd-b70e-
9fe96d1411cd%40sessionmgr120 (Accessed: 4 October 2017)

Nicolaou, A. (2017) ’Spotify closer to IPO after Warner Music deal’, Financial Times, August. Available
at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/24cc28ac-8913-11e7-bf50-e1c239b45787.html (Accessed: 4 October 2017)
 REFERENCE LIST
Crunchbase (2017) Investors. Available at: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/daniel-ek (Accessed: 5
October 2017)