Microsoft must acquire Spotify

[DRDiver]

It's a pipe dream if anyone really thinks Microsoft might consider acquiring Spotify. Microsoft has made it clear they're more interested in the Enterprise. As for my house, we streamed our music from OneDrive via Groove. NOBODY makes a streaming service that meets our needs, not even Groove, outside of our own music. The only other reason we used Groove was because we could purchase new music directly and immediately add it to our library. Nothing provides this particular combination for us. So, acquiring Spotify may be perfectly fine for the rest of you, but it adds no value for us.

 

[camaroz1985]

I don't want them to acquire it, but I would like to see a partnership. I know they pushed Spotify as a way to ease the transition at the end of Groove Music Pass, but I would like to see something like Apple Music's match to automatically make your music stored on OneDrive available in your Spotify library. I have read of work arounds to make this happen, but I'm not willing to mess with that. I am willing to pay a monthly fee to have access to their library as well as my purchased music on all devices though. I pay for SiriusXM now, and would gladly drop that in favor of Spotify if OneDrive integration or match was made available.

 

[QuietNine]

Problem 1: Spotify isn't profitable.

Microsoft should only acquire Spotify if Microsoft has some way to make it profitable. It's *possible* that with a distributed cloud service like Azure, Microsoft running the streaming "at cost" for Spotify could turn it profitable, but thats very, very unlikely. If you look into what is keeping Spotify in the red, its the heavy weight their free users on their operations. Microsoft probably can't do much to fix that.

Problem 2: Spotify has competition that may be better suited to acquisition.

Pandora on the other hand, while it has a smaller userbase, has a much larger "install base" than Spotify, and is profitable because they have a better subscription to user ratio. Smaller userbase also likely means it would cost less to acquire them.

Theres also pros and cons to the two services, most obviously, Pandora's "Radio" feature is awesome thanks to music genome while Spotify's constantly plays the cheapest songs and makes no real effort to "learn what you like"; but Spotify also has a much, much larger library to draw from for users who like to make their own playlists, while Pandora users can only make playlists if they subscribe, and are limited to Pandoras smaller library.

Problem 3: "Whats in it for Microsoft?"

Seriously. What does Microsoft gain from owning Spotify (or a competitor like Pandora thats actually profitable)? Currently, you can use Spotify or Pandora on Xbox, Microsoft Store PC app, or the web. Generally, a purchase like this would be made to secure support for a currently unsupported platform, or to block support of a competitors platform (eg the reasons why Google buying Waze were to kill off Microsoft support and block Apple from having an easy path forward in navigation).

Considering Microsoft is supported by Spotify on every platform, and considering there is no platform where "platform exclusivity" would help Microsoft (no one will drop PS4 or MacOS just because Spotify [or any other music service] became exclusive), I dont really see any reason at all for Microsoft to gobble up a music company. Also keep in mind that killing off support for competitors is somewhat against the current ethos of "go where the customers are".

The only scenario where owning a music service makes sense is one where Microsoft needs to ensure they have one (getting back into mobile or something). And I dont think that is a realistic scenario.

 

[nsu300zx]

Make it a part of Gold.

 

[Pairadyce]

Only if they incorporate the OneDrive music feature, otherwise... no. Spotify does not sell music, so I do not see Microsoft as highly interested in entering only the streaming market, when that is probably 80% of the reason they dropped the music offerings. I wondered why they didn't just continue to sell music but probably was because of music's continued declining sales and the subscriptions to justify.

 

[bseball8]

It's not that they want or need a presence in music, it's that they do not want it at all so acquiring Spotify won't really do much for them.

I would have thought they would have pondered this idea last year when they shut down and partnered with them. If they were going to buy Spotify , it would have been prudent to buy them before they went public and possibly got them a discount to what they are worth now.

 

[naddy6969]

What a silly idea. This makes as much sense as Oracle or IBM buying Spotify.

 

[sd4f]

I don't think it's a good idea. The music streaming business has become a race to the bottom, and it's very difficult for them to make money.

Spotify is the big one, but apple and google are doing it to bolster their platforms; they don't really need for it to become profitable as they can make money indirectly. MS basically ditched it because without a platform, they're just another spotify that can't win. So again, buying spotify would mean that they just spend heaps of money on an app which isn't profitable.

I think MS made the right call here, let the others fight it out. It can be seen as a tactical retreat of sorts on the part of MS

 

[Keith Wallace]

I don't see the point. Microsoft isn't geared towards the consumer mass market. Spotify wouldn't make them better in any market. It's just throwing potentially billions to be affiliated with a product. What would they gain?

 

[chuckyj1]

Should they? Yes. Will they probably not or not anytime soon anyway.

 

[ScoobaMalibu]

Absolutely not. Microsoft does terrible job at marketing and supporting services and products outside of its core windows & office products. Skype is no longer a household name. Zune was an excellent product but was abandoned. Xbox music & Groove music (recycled Microsoft product name from an office suite application) had virtually no marketing as a result crashed & burned in 24 months each. Fitness Band met with a similar fate. Windows Phone after purchasing Nokia was the beginning of the end of the mobile phones, quality & support declined rapidly. Ending the production of one the most innovative & groundbreaking product, Kinect, is an example of terrible decision making. Unless you'd like to see Spotify disappear all together or in popularity within 24 mos., Microsoft should stay FAR AWAY from the idea of buying this service!

 

[Richard Toft]

In one sense I agree. I miss Groove too, but spotify's business model is dreadful, its just a money pit. I'd prefer MS to start selling music like tv's and movies.

 

[Ryujingt3]

I don't think they should buy them, no. But what if, one day, MS decided that the default music player that gets installed with every Windows installation is Spotify? That might be worth something.

 

[dym3nelo]

Behold! Spotify bug everywhere lol. I don't like that idea, they don't support the tech well, skype was 100% working before I had no issue but when MS acquire skype it's gets those error / not connecting / down time problem, not saying always but It had those issues in 2018.

But in a business side, "YES" the investment they going to made will probably return in no time and they can do a lot to that data. But I hope they don't buy them *cross finger*.

 

[Lobo Technician]

Not unless MS is ready to fully invest in the consumer market once again. This would not be the best purchase to revamp their ecosystem, if anything it should be one their final purchases, after they reboot their platform.

 

[Ryujingt3]

It won't happen. MS isn't really interested in us consumers any longer. Besides, anything they usually acquire just gets abandoned later on.

 

[the_moesiah]

If I trusted them do it right then I would love to see Microsoft buy Spotify or SiriusXM and Sling TV.

 

[Akshay M]

A book “Spotify Untold” was recently released in Sweden, this book tells the story of Spotify’s rise from a small start-up to the biggest music streaming company in the world. This book has revealed several new information about Spotify. For example, Spotify had plans to enter video streaming market to compete with Netflix and others. It even created an entirely new file format called Spotify Video that will allow buffer free streaming. Spotify also had plans to release a streaming stick like Fire TV that support Spotify streaming services.

This book also revealed that Microsoft had plans to acquire Spotify, but there is no information on when this happened. Microsoft had its own music streaming platform called Groove Music and it was killed in early 2018. At that time, Microsoft even partnered with Spotify to allow Groove Music Pass subscribers to easily transition existing music collections and playlists to Spotify with a few clicks. Microsoft also offered a 60-day free trial of Spotify Premium to select Groove Music customers.