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> Spotify laughs all the way to the bank

FWIW, I don't think Spotify makes much, if any, money lol

Net profit was €1.14bn for 2024, which feels like a reasonable amount of money.

Sadly I think we're in need of the AriZona Iced Tea of streaming. A company that sells a streaming service, at a fixed price, makes a small profit and is happy with that profit.

The issue is that the current streaming services have cost billions to develop and companies and investors want that money back, times a 100. The money hasn't gone into a long term product that people will be happy with for decades, it has gone into a product that needs to return large chunk of money in a short time frame (and cover up other failed ventures).

The issue is that such a company either needs to make their own first-party content, or pay licensing fees for third-party content, and the companies those license fees are paid to are always looking to either cut out the middle service in favor of their own or increase what they're charging.

> I don't think Spotify makes much, if any, money

per their financial statements, about 150Mio in operating profits per quarter. Gross profit of 1.000Mio per quarter.

I'd like to have that kind of "not much money"

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