Spotify has revealed their 2009 financials today, and it appears that the company saw a hefty loss for the last year.
Revenue grew to £11.32 million but costs rose to £18.82 million, not including distribution costs of £608,711 and administrative expenses of £8.29 million.
Overall, the company saw a £16.4 million loss.
Revenue came mainly from subscriptions, with £6.81 million coming from monthly subscribers. The rest of the revenue came from advertisements, to the tune of £4.51 million.
Spotify had seven million users in Europe by the end of the financial year, but only 250,000 paying subscribers.
“2009 saw us focus on establishing a new and innovative music service and bringing it to millions of people across Europe. The groundwork laid in our launch year has been crucial to the significant achievements made in 2010. Further strengthening and expansion of the service remains our top priority,” says the company.
Result for: music service
Last week we reported that LimeWire, once the world’s most popular P2P client, had been officially shut down, following a four-year legal battle against the record industry.
A New York federal court issued a permanent injunction against the site, ruling that LimeWire caused a “massive scale of infringement” by intentionally giving users a platform to share millions of unauthorized music tracks.
At its peak, LimeWire was seeing 50 million monthly users.
Following the ruling, LimeWire has had to lay off 29 of its 100 staff members.
Curiously, the company will keep the other 71 working on an unknown new music service.
Says CEO George Searle, via AllThingsD: “Following the court-ordered injunction, we reduced our work force to extend our runway for bringing our new music service to market. Letting go of colleagues is never easy. If we could have brought about another solution, we would have.”
The upcoming service is dubbed “Grapevine.”
Result for: music service
Delahunty @ 11 Oct 2010 12:43 User comments (11)
Microsoft Corp. has launched its latest attack on rivals in the mobile space with the launch of Windows Phone 7, which will be available in smartphones launching in the U.S. and Europe over the next few weeks. The software giant said it built Windows Phone 7 from the ground up, with a much simpler user interface for consumers.
The main target of WP7 handsets is clearly consumers, with such strong integration with the popular Xbox Live online gaming service and the less-popular Zune music service. It also provides a suite of Office applications that automatically sync with Microsoft’s cloud service for business users.
Microsoft’s mobile operating systems have been criticized for limited functionality and a lack of available applications. Nokia’ Symbian operating system is clearly the market leader, while Apple’s iOS has grown with the popularity of the iPhone propelling it. Google’s Android software will overtake Apple’s OS soon.
“There’s a huge amount resting on the launch of Windows Phone 7 for Microsoft, its device and operator partners, and for the ecosystem market in general,” said Tony Cripps of technology consultants Ovum. “If it fails to claw back market share lost to iPhone and Android, then Windows Phone 7 may well mark the point at which Microsoft turns its back on smartphones forever.”
Seven new handsets with Windows Phone 7 will launch in the UK on October 21, while nine will launch in the U.S. market in November. Handsets will be offered up by established partners such as Samsung, LG and HTC. The question for Microsoft’s new OS is whether it can surpass its rivals in terms of usability and functionality.
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