The Wall Street Journal:

The Swedish company, last valued at $8.5 billion, is seriously considering not holding a public sale of shares. Instead it is exploring simply listing its shares on an exchange in what is known as a direct listing, according to people familiar with the matter. It wouldn’t raise money—the hallmark of an IPO—or use underwriters to sell the stock.

And:

There are risks to this approach, whose consideration by Spotify was earlier reported by Mergermarket. With market forces determining the share price from the outset, the company’s public debut could be more volatile and unpredictable. Also missing would be the large blocks of stock underwriters typically allocate to investors they believe will hold the shares for the long term and promote trading stability.

The Verge has up a test to see if you can tell the difference between compressed and lossless audio:

Below are three songs, each presented in three different versions: a lossless version at 1,411 kbps, a “premium” version at 320 kbps, and standard version at 160 kbps. Try and see if you can pick the lossless audio out of the three.

No cheating.

The Verge:

Spotify has agreed to a new licensing agreement with Universal Music Group, the companies announced today. As part of the deal, Spotify has agreed to allow new albums from Universal artists to be restricted to its premium service for up to two weeks moving forward, confirming our report from last month. Spotify will also pay slightly less to UMG in royalty fees, according to sources close to the situation.

Paul Sawers, writing for VentureBeat:

Spotify has acquired MightyTV, a New York-based startup that uses AI to provide video recommendations based on personal preferences and opinions of friends. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. […]

As a result of this acquisition, MightyTV is being shuttered with immediate effect, which essentially means this deal was more of an acqui-hire than anything else.

Jordan Kahn, writing for 9to5Mac:

Spotify is considering a move that would mean some of its biggest new releases will be restricted to paid users, according to a new report from Financial Times. The decision would come as part of a negotiation with record labels that would reduce the amount of royalties Spotify pays for songs and also allow the company to prepare for an initial public offering.

This has always felt inevitable.

Spotify has reached 50 million paid subscribers.

Read More “Spotify Hits 50 Million Paid Subscribers”

The Verge is reporting that Spotify is preparing to launch a lossless version of it’s streaming service:

The streaming service began running a test on a small group of users yesterday, offering the Hi-Fi service for $5 to $10 above the $10 per month price for Spotify Premium.

Spotify will be relocating their U.S. headquarters to 4 World Trade Center:

The streaming service will move be moving from midtown to 4 World Trade Center in early 2018, and with the new digs comes a host of new jobs: Spotify will add 1,000 new jobs to its workforce by 2018. The company will retain the 800 employees working in New York.

The (I hear failing) New York Times has teamed up with Spotify to create a new subscription package:

Get a one-year New York Times All Access subscription for $5 a week, get Spotify Premium free — a $120 annual value.

TechCrunch is reporting that Spotify may delay it’s IPO until 2018:

TechCrunch has heard from multiple sources that the company is now weighing a plan to delay an IPO until 2018. The delay would give Spotify more time to build up a better balance sheet and work on shifting its business model to improve its margins, one source said.