Spotify Appears To Be A Non-Starter
After reporting less than stellar earnings and a $17 million quarterly loss, Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. faced analysts on an earnings call. Some excerpts:
"Variable pricing at iTunes "couldn’t have come at a worse time. (The deal was made) in the summer of 2008 before the financial crisis even hit - Apple went through that price increase in April, but in the face of the worse recession since the Depression... I don’t think there’s been another company to have taken such a price increase (30% on hit product) in 2009.”
“The subscription models that we are promoting will create much more value over time than the per-play or per-purchase models ...The number of potential subscribers dwarfs the number of people purchasing music on iTunes."
Will WMG License Spotify?
While not answering specifically Bronfman saifd, “Free streaming services are not a positive thing for the industry and, as far as Warner Music Group goes, will not be licensed. It is not the kind of approach that we will be supporting in the future.”
