Music streaming service Spotify inexplicably down

Swedish streaming service Spotify was offline for an unknown reason on Tuesday, the company said, as millions of users worldwide reported they had been logged out and were unable to log back on.

"Something's not quite right, and we're looking into it. Thanks for your reports!" the company wrote on Twitter.

Millions of users posted on Twitter about their problems connecting to the app.

Spotify did not respond immediately to AFP's request for a comment.                                                                       

The company has more than 400 million active users, including 180 million paying subscribers.

Agence France-Presse

Spotify earnings hit sour note on Wall Street

Spotify shares took a hit Thursday after a disappointing growth outlook offset the first-ever quarterly profit posted by the streaming music sector leader.

Shares in the Swedish-based music group slid 5.7 percent to close at $141.16 after the company’s third quarter earnings report.


 

 Spotify said the number of paid “premium” subscribers rose to 87 million in the quarter, and it posted a first-ever profit of 43 million euros ($49 million) as a result of a tax adjustment.

Total revenue was $1.35 billion, up 31 percent from a year ago, largely in line with forecasts.

But Spotify’s growth outlook was weaker than expected, forecasting revenue increases of between 18 and 35 percent in the coming quarter.

It said it expected total users to rise 24 to 29 percent to between 199 and 206 million, with premium subscriptions growing to between 90 and 96 million.

Jeff Wlodarczak of Pivotal Research said he remained positive on Spotify despite the “modest reduction” in the outlook.

“Ultimately, we expect most consumers to move to subscription streaming all-you-can-eat model for music consumption,” the analyst said in a research note.

“While clearly there are risks to the Spotify story (mainly around Apple and to a lesser extent Google in streaming) the reality is that we are still in the early days of streaming,” Wlodarczak added.

“Spotify operates what we view as the most attractive streaming service with a heavy investment in discovery differentiating the service.”

Spotify is in fierce competition with its rivals offering both subscription-based and ad-supported music services.

These include Apple, Google-owned YouTube and Pandora, which is being acquired by SiriusXM.

Apple, set to release its quarterly results later Thursday, has most recently said it has 50 million subscribers for its music service.

Spotify said this week it would offer US premium subscribers a free Google Home Mini to enable them to listen more easily in their homes, a move expected to cut into its revenues. CC

Agence France-Presse 

Winamp 6 for mobile to launch in 2019

Winamp, the MP3 player of the late 1990s, will get a new version and aggregation features in 2019.

Possibly one of the most recognizable icons of the late 1990s’ computing era, Winamp became the go-to program for playing MP3 from a personal computer. The music player became a constant in the ever changing and growing PC platform and reached a user base of 60 million by 2001.


Because of its reputation and loyal community of users, Radionomy, the company that bought Winamp in 2014, continued development of the music player and confirmed an all-new version 6 mobile app to come out in 2019, reports TechCrunch


Winamp 6 will work as a neutral one-player-for-all where users can listen to their personal music collection while also plugging in to streaming services like Audible, Google Music library, Podcasts and Spotify playlists.

“What I see today is you have to jump from one player to another player or aggregator if you want to listen to a radio station, to a podcast player if you want to listen to a podcast — this, to me, is not the final experience,” said Radionomy CEO Alexandre Saboundjian.

Originally developed by the company Nullsoft, development continued for the desktop version of Winamp until it reached Winamp 5.5 in 2007. After this, updates stopped until Winamp 5.666 came out in 2013 and was billed as the last update from Nullsoft/AOL.

Meanwhile, a mobile version of Winamp came out in 2010 for Android. A year later, Winamp for Mac OS called Winamp for Mac Sync Beta was released.

On Sept. 16, 2018, a Winamp 5.8 version was leaked online. The leaked beta version bore the build date of Oct. 26, 2016. An official version is expected to come out by Oct. 18 which won’t be much different from the leaked beta version. It will still have all the fixes to allow the app to function properly in Windows 10.

Until Winamp 6 comes out in 2019 with its promised features, loyal fans may check on the website’s trademark Llama periodically for updates. Alfred Bayle/JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Eminem tops Spotify’s 40-million-listener list

STOCKHOLM—US rapper Eminem is the most played artist on the world’s biggest music streaming service Spotify, the Swedish company said Wednesday, announcing it had reached ten million premium users.

Spotify launched in 2008 and now has 40 million active users in 56 countries, three quarters of whom use the free service rather than the paid-for subscription.

That compares to the 24 million active users, including around six million premium customers, the company reported in April 2013.

Spotify’s catalogue is one of the widest available on streaming services, but Eminem did not have to face the stiff competition of The Beatles, who were still not available in the Swedish company’s offer.

Despite being released in June 2013, the most played song since the creation of Spotify six years ago was “Wake Me Up” by Swedish artist Avicii.

The most popular female artist was Rihanna.

Spotify discreetly publishes its financial results from Luxemburg, where it is headquartered.

In its latest report for fiscal year 2012, published last year, the company reported net losses of 58.7 million euros ($80.2 million) and a 434.7-million-euro revenue.

In its statement on Wednesday, the group also revealed that “more than one billion dollars” had been payed to the copyright holders since 2000, roughly double the amount paid a year earlier.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Spotify’s Top 10 most viral tracks

The following list represents the most viral tracks on Spotify, based on the number of people who shared it divided by the number who listened to it, from April 21, to April 27, via Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Spotify.









United States

  
1. Jack White, “Lazaretto” (Third Man/Columbia)

2. Tiesto, “Wasted” (Casablanca Records)

3. Future, “Bez Friendz (Watchutola)” (Epic Records)

4. Kygo, “I See Fire” (Kygo)

5. Ellie Goulding, “Goodness Gracious – The Chainsmokers Remix” (Polydor UK)

6. Steve Aoki, “Rage the Night Away” (Ultra Records)

7. Avril Lavigne, “Hello Kitty” (Epic Records)

8. Sam Smith, “Latch – Acoustic” (Capitol Records)

9. Iggy Azalea, “(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk) Love” (Virgin EMI Records)

10. MØ, “Say You’ll Be There” (RCA Records)

United Kingdom 


1. Jack White, “Lazaretto” (Third Man/Columbia)

2. Royal Blood, “Come On Over” (Warner Bros. Records)

3. Avril Lavigne, “Hello Kitty” (Epic Records)

4. Mr. Probz, “Waves – Robin Schulz Radio Edit” (Ultra / Sony Music Entertainment Netherlands B.V.)

5. Future, “Bez Friendz (Watchutola)” (Epic Records)

6. Milky Chance, “Down By the River” (Ignition Records)

7. Lewis Watson, “Stay” (Warner Bros. Records)

8. Jamie xx, “Sleep Sound” (Young Turks)

9. First Aid Kit, “My Silver Lining” (Columbia)

10. Kyla La Grange, “Cut Your Teeth – Kygo Remix” (ioki Records)

Global

1. Caparezza, “Mica Van Gogh” (UMG)

2. Jack White, “Lazaretto” (Third Man/Columbia)

3. Tiesto, “Wasted” (Casablanca Records)

4. Future, “Bez Friendz (Watchutola)” (Epic Records)

5. Caparezza, “Avrai Ragione Tu (Ritratto)” (UMG)

6. Idina Menzel, “Let it Go” (Walt Disney Records)

7. Enrique Iglesias, “Bailando” (Universal Music Spain S.L.)

8. Avril Lavigne, “Hello Kitty” (Epic Records)

9. Iggy Azalea, “Black Mambo” (Virgin EMI Records)

10. Bob Dylan, “Hurricane” (Columbia)

source: entertainment.inquirer.net