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Title: Authors: Source: Document Type: Subject Terms: Company/Entity: Why Europe's Hit Music Site Isn't Playing the U.S. Grover, Ronald Satariano, Adam Bloomberg Businessweek; 6/14/2010, Issue 4183, p32-33, 2p, 1 Color Photograph Article *STREAMING audio *ELECTRONIC commerce SPOTIFY Ltd. WARNER Music Group Inc. DUNS Number: 943043745 SONY Music Entertainment Inc.

NAICS/Industry Codes: NAICS/Industry Codes 454111 Electronic Shopping 425110 Business to Business Electronic Markets Abstract: The article discusses the inability thus far of online music service Spotify to enter the U.S. market. Several U.S. music publishers including Universal, Sony, and Warner won't allow Spotify to make available their song catalogs free to customers, as they do in Europe. Instead, they want it to adopt a business model that will generate monthly revenues. 0007-7135 51396471

Full Text Word Count: 694 ISSN: Accession Number:

Database: Business Source Complete Section: Technology Digital Music

Why Europe's Hit Music Site Isn't Playing the U.S.

Big labels have blocked Spotify from offering streaming music Sweden has a new music export, and it's attracting an audience way broader than an ABBA greatest hits album. Twenty-month-old Spotify allows listeners to tune in to their favorite music over the Internet. It has 7.7 million registered users across Europe, according to digital media tracker ComScore. That's roughly 10 times the audience of Rhapsody, which has been around for nine years and is the leading music subscription service in the U.S. For more than a year, Spotify's co-founder, Daniel Ek, has been trying to bring the service to the U.S. What's stopping him are the industry's four major record labels, Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI. They have licensed their music to Spotify for use in the U.K., Spain, France, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands, where most listeners tune in to the service free. In the U.S., the labels want the service to make them money and help compensate for a 65 percent drop in CD sales over the last decade. Aside from the free part, the labels like Spotify for the same reason listeners do. Tunes from its 8 million-song catalog load quickly, and listeners can compile playlists of their favorite tracks and gain access to them from any computer. "Spotify is the first digital offering that has come along that people find sexy without having the Apple name on it," says Ted Cohen, a former top digital executive at EMI Music, whose Tag Strategic advises companies on digital strategy. The four big labels want Spotify, now based in London, to junk its free model and find a guaranteed revenue stream it could share with them, say music executives with knowledge of the discussions. Rhapsody and U.S. rivals eMusic and MOG charge monthly fees. "Free streaming music services are clearly not net positive for the industry," said Edgar Bronfman Jr., chief executive officer of Warner Music Group, during an earnings call in February. Warner was an early investor in Spotify. The service already offers two premium plans in Europe: For the equivalent of around $6 a month,

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listeners get unlimited playtime with no ads; $12 buys better sound quality and the ability to play music from a cell phone. So far only 320,000 users have signed up for subscriptions, a sign that Europeans exhibit the same resistance to paying for music that Americans do. For the record labels, clearing that hurdle is crucial as CD sales continue to plummet and Apple's iTunes keeps its grip on digital music pricing. "Nothing in digital has been able to counter the decline in traditional revenue sources," said Ek, 27, at an industry conference in March. Record companies, he said, are "concerned about how to ensure that people don't stop buying CDs." The major music companies have been pressing Spotify to ally with wireless service providers so they can get a cut of the monthly charges. Spotify has tried that, signing a deal with Swedish telephone operator Telia. Plus, it has created apps for the Apple iPhone and handsets powered by Google's Android software. Google also has been "kicking the tires" at Spotify, according to music executives with knowledge of the search engine's interest, but no acquisition is in the works. Apple bought Lala, another music streaming service, last year, only to shut it down at the end of May. The talk in the industry is that Steve Jobs wants to incorporate Lala's technology into a subscription version of iTunes, which would allow listeners to gain access to their music libraries from any device. Whether Spotify becomes an iTunes competitor will depend on the fickle tastes of consumers. One part of the equation will be whether the music labels let it do business in the U.S. The bottom line: The music majors are pressing a hot European startup to dump its free service as a condition for licensing their tunes for use in the U.S.. PHOTO (COLOR): Spotify founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon Copyright Bloomberg L.P., Copyright 2010

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By Ronald Grover and Adam Satariano Edited by Jim Aley Copyright of Bloomberg Businessweek is the property of Bloomberg, L.P. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

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