Spotify Newsletter #153

Your Weekly Dose of Spotify News

Mar 17

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Hello! Welcome to the latest issue of the Spotify Newsletter!

In the wake of last week’s Stream On event there’s still a fierce cadre of users and pundits unhappy with the design changes. A new round of ‘here’s how to easily cancel Spotify’ articles made the rounds, which is typical when Spotify whips up a commotion.

I’ll say this… the bulk of my Spotify usage is via desktop. I use the phone app on walks, etc.., but I’m at a desk throughout the day and mostly not effected by any jazzy, splashy vertical feeds. At least not yet.

We are in the midst of the Spotify app’s biggest revamp ever, so the hope is that the TikTokification of the platform will be a benefit to artists and fans.

Whether or not we’ll see a rollback of some of the design changes is anyone’s guess. The team clearly feels as if this is the way, so might as well make the best of the great, TikTok-y leap forward.

Beyond all the design hoopla… look at all this news!

Are you kidding me?! Perhaps I need to deliver a mid-week edition just to keep up with all the Spotify action.

There is a ridiculous amount of news, and I am just the fella to deliver it all, neatly displayed with bullet points and silly emojis. 😀

It was a great week in Spotify World.

Have a nice Friday and a terrific weekend!!

★In the SPOTlight★

⭐️ Spotify boss thinks streaming is having its radio-to-MTV moment

“In the music industry, when we went from having a radio to MTV, it was a hell of a lot better, and it allowed totally different artists to get a new way of communicating,” said Ek.

⭐️ Spotify’s Head Of Music Jeremy Erlich Talks All The Changes Coming To The Streamer

Many of the new features and updates are focused on music discovery and helping more musicians make good money via Spotify–something the behemoth in the industry has been criticized for since day one. While the company didn’t provide magic solutions to all the issues that are regularly raised or even ones that will appease everyone, several of the most notable changes coming do seem like they’ll be highly valuable to both listeners and artists alike.

⭐️ Spotify approaches $40bn in all-time payouts to the music industry

Spotify says that “nearly 70%” of every dollar it generates from music “is paid back as royalties to rightsholders, who then pay the artists and songwriters, based on the agreed terms”.

⭐️ Spotify's HiFi tier is coming — but not soon

Spotify announced that a lossless tier called Spotify HiFi would be released in 2021. Two years later, an exec says the HiFi tier is definitely coming, but no word yet on when.

⭐️ Celebrating 10 Years of Spotify in Italy and Poland

Ten years ago, Spotify launched in Italy and Poland, and we began our work to engage with local creative talent and the community through Spotify programs, festivals, and events.