The future of Spotify

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🎶 This episode features “Nova Nocturne” by MAD Records Collective member, Rhimmon Simchy. You can check out the full song (and more of Rhimmon’s music) by clicking here.

Well… I broke out my old finance shirt for this one.

Today I sat down with Wall Street stock analyst, Andrew Marok, to discuss one of the most hotly debated companies in the music industry….

SPOTIFY.

I’m a big believer that whether you want to disrupt (or align with) any company or corporation… you need to actually understand how it operates under the hood.

So in this episode, Andrew breaks down how Spotify actually works as a business.

We step outside of the usual pro-Spotify anti-Spotify debate and focus on incentives, economics, and long-term strategy so artists can make informed decisions about where (and if) streaming fits into their careers.

We cover how Spotify makes money, why pricing power matters, what keeps users hooked into the platform, and why music streaming has not diminished the way video streaming has. We also dig into the tension between convenience and culture, the frustrations independent artists feel around monetization and ownership, and what AI could mean for the future of music and distribution.

I want to personally thank Andrew for taking the time to break this all down for the artist community…. this conversation is a great representation of how the artist and business community can help and inform each other.

If you have follow up questions for this interview, drop them in the comments and I’ll be sure to ask them next time we have Andrew on the podcast.

Enjoy!

TOPIC OVERVIEW:

0:00 – 1:17 Intro, ft. artist Rhimmon Simchy, and guest introduction (Andrew Marok)1:17 – 7:35 Why talk to an equity analyst and how stock market thinking works7:35 – 16:02 How Spotify makes money, raises prices, and keeps users17:13 – 26:46 Passive listening, music as art, and why streaming has not fractured26:46 – 34:35 Independent artists, monetization, and Spotify’s path to profitability34:35 – 42:34 How Spotify grows profit and where artists fit into that growth42:34 – 48:58 Culture versus convenience, playlists, and taste making48:58 – 54:39 The future of streaming and the role of AI54:39 – end AI as a tool, long-term thinking, and closing reflections

(Podcast intro music created by Luke Despain, Thomas Muer, and Rob Schustack.)

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