CLOSING CASE TWO

Spotify: Music as a Mobile Service

Daniel Ek spotted a business opportunity in the music industry when he was convinced that if you give away music for free and make it easy and pleasant for people to listen, they will become regular listeners. Ek wanted to disrupt the digital-download music business by replacing the iPod with on-demand music via mobile phones. As a habit formed, these users would almost magically be willing to pay for what they had been getting for free. Ek’s Spotify start-up operates on this premise: The more you play, the more you’ll pay. This counterintuitive idea continues to form the basis of Spotify’s business model, even as it has confounded music labels and artists.

Since 2008, when Spotify launched, it has remained the global music leader using the cloud to stream music, popularizing the idea of music as a service rather than goods that consumers own. With 100 million paying subscribers, Spotify currently remains the top cloud music provider, although Apple and Google are approaching fast in the rearview mirror.

Apple, which dominated the digital-download music business with iTunes during the 2000s, launched its music subscription service in 2015. Analysts predicted it would pass Spotify in subscribers within a year, thanks to the power of the iPhone user base and Echo smart speakers. Amazon Prime Music Unlimited customers are signing up in droves to Amazon’s cloud music service.

Google already has the globe’s most popular digital music listening device in YouTube, and in an effort to make more money from it, the company recently introduced a Spotify-like YouTube Music subscription.

Read Closing Case Two: Spotify: Music as a Mobile Service (in yellow) and respond to the five questions below.  Be sure to use the Rubric as a guide to the requirements.

Spotify: Music as a Mobile service:

1. How is Spotify taking advantage of mobile devices?

2. How is Spotify a music-as-a-service business:

3. Why should Spotify care about mobile device management?

4. Why should Spotify care about mobile application management?

5. Without wireless technologies and mobile device, would Spotify be successful? Why or why not?

Your paper should include an introduction and responses to the five questions in a paper format. Please do not bullet points for your answers and do not list the case questions.  Consider using subheadings and write a paper that flows from paragraph to paragraph. Use APA format (double-spaced) and cite any resources.

Grading Rubric: