By Michael Liedtke, Technology Writer
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) --Music-streaming pioneer Spotify is hoping to attract a new crowd of fans on Wall Street as its competition with Apple heats up.
Spotify is pursuing an unusual initial public offering that will sell some of its existing stock instead of issuing more shares to raise money. The strategy will make it easier for Spotify's existing stockholders to cash out of their investments while creating a potential new financial channel for the company.
Having a publicly traded stock could also draw more attention to Spotify and its music service as it tries to fend off a growing competitive threat from Apple, the world's most valuable company and one of its best-known brands.
Spotify indicated $1 billion worth of stock will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange, although the amount is likely to be much higher, based on information contained in documents released Wednesday. The Luxembourg-based company took its first steps toward an IPO in a confidential filing a few weeks ago.
The numbers revealed Spotify's music-streaming service boasts 71 million subscribers, nearly twice as many as Apple's rival service.
But Spotify still isn't profitable. The Luxembourg-based company lost 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion, based on the latest currency exchange rates) on revenue of 4.1 euros last year. By comparison, Apple earned $46 billion on revenue of $216 billion in its last fiscal years, thanks to the success of iPhones, iPads and other products that finance its music subscription service.
Although it has been outgunned financially, Spotify has been able to stay a step ahead since Apple launched its music-streaming service in 2015. Since then Apple has attracted 36 million music-streaming subscribers, according to CEO Tim Cook.
But Spotify has added 43 million subscribers since Apple Music's debut. That suggests the main impact of Apple's entry into the market may have been to normalize the idea of paying monthly fees for online music. Amazon and Google also offer music-streaming services.
It's an idea that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has been working on since he co-founded the company in 2006 in a mission combining his passions for music and technology.
"Over time, I realized that by combining my two passions, I could create a new paradigm," Ek wrote in a letter included with the IPO filing. The letter outlined his ambition to "improve the world, one song at a time."
Although music streaming is becoming increasingly popular, Spotify and similar services such as Pandora's internet radio station have struggled to make money because of the royalties and other fees that they have to pay recording labels, songwriters and performers. That's the main reason Spotify has accumulated losses totaling 2.4 billion euros.
Spotify also offers a free service that people can listen to if they are willing to tolerate ads in between the tunes. Overall, Spotify says 159 million people worldwide listen to its music services each month.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More