To up its pay model without increasing its current monthly subscription fee is an arduous task. Another approach is to become an utterly premium streaming service, but such a move will deprive the Swedish streaming service of its over 190 million free subscribers.
One brilliant move that will most likely increase its revenue is to enter into event ticketing for virtual and live shows. As claimed in a recent report by The Information, Spotify is planning to venture into selling tickets to events through their heavily-visited platform. It is not the first time Spotify would dabble into concert tickets promotion. For example, Spotify announced a series of virtual concerts featuring Rag’n’Bone Man, Leon Bridges, Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff, and Girl in Red in response to the complete absence of live events caused by the 2020 Covid pandemic.
The Spotify virtual concert was a product of the partnership between Spotify and Driift, an immersive live streaming platform. This move could be Spotify’s way of testing the waters in preparation for a more significant move: to take over the event ticketing business as they did with podcasting.
Spotify is now a major contender in the podcasting space despite its late arrival into the industry. Apple saw the potentials of podcasting way back in 2005, while Spotify gave its users access to podcasting in 2018. In 2021, Spotify emerged as the winner in terms of podcast monthly listeners. Spotify has 28.2 million monthly listeners, and Apple has 28 million monthly listeners. Spotify has achieved this almost impossible feat despite arriving late, and the same could happen with event ticketing.
Unlike streaming, events offer a higher payout. From 2015 to 2019, the average music concert ticket price increased from $78 to $96.17 per person. The current Rolling Loud three-day concerts cost $541 (regular ticket) and $1,344 (VIP ticket). Suppose Spotify can help artists headline events in the regions where they are popular (according to their monthly listeners’ stat). In that case, the relationship between Spotify and artists could get better.
In line with the report mentioned earlier, Spotify is not interested in displacing or, at the very least, locking heads with established events companies like Live Nation Entertainment.
However, in 2018, Billboard reported that Spotify has allowed artists to upload their songs directly on the platform in exchange for Artists’ advances. Although labels perform more functions than licensing music, the intent to bypass the labels makes Spotify a direct threat to them. We can witness the same plot with the events business.
The Information report caused Live Nation Entertainment stocks to dip by 0.9%. It is not clear whether Spotify will try to displace the current events juggernauts in the future, but it’s not impossible.