Spotify Adds 7M Subscribers in Q2; Ali Hazelwood Partners With Spotify to Release New Audio-First Novella

#221 | Your Weekly Dose of Spotify News

Aug 02, 2024

Hello Hello. Thanks for tuning in.

There was no Spotify Newsletter last week because someone hacked my account name - or whatever, I am not quite sure.

Anyway, they sent a truckload of spam emails all over the planet. I don’t think anyone on the newsletter subscriber list actually received any spam, but still… I received all the complaints, and it looked like my publication was the culprit.

A real bummer all around, to say the least. And if you do get any form of spam, I am sorry. I’m hopeful the Substack tech folks figured it out, but who knows. I’m not 100% sure if it’s fixed, but we’ll see.

If anything wonky happens moving forward there’s good odds I’ll pack up and decamp for a different newsletter platform.

The world’s finest Spotify newsletter must carry on, somehow… someway. :)

In the meantime …….

★ SPOTlight

⭐️ Spotify raises free-lyrics limit and plans largest concert yet

Last year, reports suggested that Spotify was putting song lyrics behind its paywall, restricting them to premium users only. That turned out to be tests in a few countries, which evolved into a policy placing a monthly limit on how many songs with lyrics free users could see.

⭐️ Ali Hazelwood is Partnering Up With Spotify to Release a New Audio-First Novella, ‘Two Can Play’

Spotify is partnering up with Ali Hazelwood to bring an audio-first novella to life. Two Can Play, which will be released on October 1st, also sparks a new part of Spotify Audiobooks as they announce their first major project that fans will be able to check out.

⭐️ Spotify adds seven million subscribers in Q2 and reports record profitability

The streaming giant added seven million subscribers and achieved record profitability in the three months. “Our business continued to perform well in Q2, led by healthy subscriber gains, improved monetisation and record profitability,” said Spotify in its update to investors. “Although we did see another quarter of MAU variability, funnel conversion remained strong, particularly in developed markets where we recently adjusted pricing.”