Spotify’s Sweet Valentine's Day Offer
Before Hitting Wall Street
13 February 2018
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Back in January, Spotify was signing confidential papers with the SEC in order to go public. On February 2nd, the SEC approved a New York Stock Exchange request to modify certain direct listing rules. This could mean good things for Spotify, considering the past few months have been hard for the Swedish music streaming company (with a $1.6 billion lawsuit and Apple Music’s steady rise). However, they have also timed this news with another sweet offer: free 60 days of Premium service for new users. This seems to be coming at almost too perfect of a time, considering they are reported to land on Wall Street this month. Interesting move, Daniel Ek. Very interesting.
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But competition is tough. Spotify and Apple Music are the battling titans of music streaming. They gotta do what they gotta do, right? Apple confirmed their plan to acquire Shazam for $400 million on December 11, 2017. This came just a month after Spotify acquired Soundtrap, an online recording studio startup. They are also testing a new Android-only playlist app called Stations. This ongoing duel between the two companies all hinges on how well Spotify does on Wall Street. If they fail, Apple Music will be the reigning champ.