The Major Labels Are Trying to Sell Spotify for $10 Billion, Sources Say | Hacker News Reader

The Major Labels Are Trying to Sell Spotify for $10 Billion, Sources Say

digitalmusicnews.com

29 pointsbalbaugh20 comments

Pretty sure the labels are giving Spotify sweetheart licensing deals right now to boost a business in which they're a stakeholder, but once they're not invested in the business they have every incentive to put the screws to the new owner by jacking up licensing fees. I've heard that Hulu is the same kind of deal.

Google offered perhaps $4B for hulu, predicated on long term, and perhaps exclusive, licensing [1] (this doesn't mention a price; I seem to remember reading it at the time but can't find a link). The content owners said no, which gives away the whole game -- wait a couple years, then take the screws to the owners for licensing deals.

[1] http://allthingsd.com/20110906/google-goes-big-with-its-hulu...

IIRC Fred Wilson completely devalued Hulu (like 0 value) stating "it has no rights to any of it's content". Can't find the source at the moment. Anyone know?

Replace "labels" with "networks," and "Spotify" with "Hulu," and we've read this story 100 times. It hasn't really ever worked out for them.

Can anyone think of a company with deep enough pockets to afford $10b that would actually want Spotify?

Because there doesn't seem to be an obvious fit to me.

A new post on digitalmusicnews.com points to Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

"Now, according to more sources talking to Digital Music News, Microsoft, Google and ‘possibly Amazon’ are all entertaining the idea of buying Spotify, though $10 billion could be considered an aggressive ask."[1]

[1] http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/06/12/microso...

Amazon just launched their own music service. I can easily see someone like Microsoft trying to jump in and buy Spotify to create their own version.

Microsoft already has their own version: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/music/music-pass

I guess it shows that I don't have xbox :)

They have had their own version for years in http://www.xbox.com/music.

In fact, Microsoft was one of the first major players in the streaming subscription market. Before Google Play Music Pass, before Spotify, there was the Zune Pass. It was a sweeter deal back then, $10/mo for all you can eat and you got $10 in credit for songs every month that you could keep even after you cancelled your subscription. Basically pre-pay for 10 songs every month and you get the entire streaming catalog.

Rhapsody was the only competitor at the time that I knew of. The Zune Pass service didn't really catch on because, well... you needed a Zune.

$14.99/mo, though at one time I was offered $100/year, should gave grabbed it. The credit plan was discontinued and only the $10/mo for streaming/no credits is currently offered as an xbox music pass. I was grandfathered in and still receive the monthly credits to this day. Usually it's a scramble at the end of the month to use the credits since they don't roll over. Overall, it's a good deal though. Bit clunky though since you can stream music using the latest clients (HTML, xbox, ios) but must use old Zune software to purchase it.

That doesn't seem to usually stop Microsoft from making an acquisition, though. They seem happy to pay for a brand even when merging it into their palette will be a major technical or bureaucratical headache.

They had in-house versions of everything Skype offers, yet they spent $8.5 billion on Skype. They had an in-house hardware team, yet they spent $7.2 billion on Nokia Mobile Devices.

If I had to guess, Microsoft is probably considering a Spotify purchase. The Xbox brand is ailing recently, and they must be getting a bit scared.

The article mentions various large telcom and mobile companies like Orange and Verizon but I find it hard to see such a thing as a good fit.

Google?

Google already has Google Play Music All Access Pass Super Long Microsoft-Style Name that's a halfway decent service.

In my experience All Access is a much better service than Spotify. No unnecessary playlists, I just add the album I want to my library where it sits next to all the other music I already owned before. Also no buggy mobile client that forces me to redownload the entire library after every update

/rant

Apple? They have the cash and iTunes sales are on the decline.

Apple just recently purchased a streaming music service called Beats.

Spotify will just be pure shit after that when it comes true. Flooding people with unnecessary ads and pushing their own artists, will fail this app.

My cancellation of subscription and removal of this app as well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com