Yet not even the leading audio-streaming company has consistently made money off audio streaming. Spotify pays music labels nearly 70 cents of every dollar it earns from music streaming, its core business, similar to other services. The Stockholm company, with a market cap nearing $40 billion, competes with services run by deep-pocketed behemoths including Apple, Amazon and Google that don’t have to rely on profits from streaming audio. Executives say the company has made progress transforming from a music-streaming service to an audio company, and that its recent push into audiobooks, coupled with podcasts and music streaming, will bring sustained profits in 2024. By 2017, music streaming took over as the top revenue contributor to recorded music revenue globally.

Source: Wall Street Journal January 18, 2024 14:34 UTC