Monday, February 10, 2020

Digital news: Spotify, Apple, Deezer, smart devices

Spotify has posted Q4 2019 revenues of €1.855 billion, up 24% year-on-year, bringing cumulative revenue for the year to €6.764bn, up 28.6%. Annual net loss in 2019 reached €186m, against €78m in 2018, while operating loss reached €73m for the year, up from €43m in 2018. Both Premium and ad-supported revenue were up during the last quarter, respectively by 24% to €1.638bn and by 23% to €217m year-on-year. Overall, Spotify reported that it had 124 million premium subscribers in the world at the end of 2019. "The most important thing for us is growing users and growing subscribers," said CFO Paul Vogel. The music streaming service forecasts revenue for 2020 in the region of €8.08-€8.48bn.

The voice-activated market is reaching maturity in the USA, with some 60 million people aged 18+ owning at least one smart speaker device,
according to the latest Smart Audio Report survey, produced by NPR and Edison Research. Household equipped with smart speakers tend to own 2.6 devices, against 2.3 in the previous survey. The survey also highlighted the growing usage of voice-activated devices, with 54% of the US population having used voice assistants on smartphones, smart speakers and other devices. “This latest report again shows the steady growth in smart speakers and the substantial use of voice activation across platforms," said NPR CEO John Lansing.

Apple's services division, which regroups activities such as music streaming service Apple Music and Apple TV, posted revenues of $12.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, up from $10.9bn in the same period of 2018, but below analyst estimates of $13bn.
According to Reuters, Apple seems to be on track to reach its target of 600 million paid subscribers for music, TV, gaming and other services by the end of calendar 2020. Apple disclosed that it now counts over 1.5 billion active devices and 480 million subscribers to its own and third-party paid services, compared with 1.4 billion devices and 360 million subscribers at the end of 2018.

Music streaming service Deezer reported 2,152,000 paid subscribers in France at the end of January 2020, jumping to 2.8 million after including "family" options with multiple users, out of a market estimated at 6.5 to 7 million subscribers to a streaming service in France. The figures were disclosed by Deezer France MD Alexis de Gemini at the inaugural Deezer Day organised in Paris by the streaming service. De Gemini said that Deezer's revenues in France exceeded €200 million and that €148m had been distributed to rights owners in 2019. He added that some 10,000 new Deezer accounts were opened each day in France.

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