Revenue Management Labs’ Post

I choose you! Let's do some education on sales/business manipulations for those who haven't seen the behind the scenes like I have in medical software/medical device. And then you decide for yourself what this REALLY is. 🦉 You keep upping the price until people start leaving. This is called PULLING LEVERS. You keep messing with the wild animal until it fights back. That is when you know you have to scale things back the other way. So it won't accept me poking it with stick 3 times, but it is ok with 2. GOT IT. 2 better than 0 😉 So if people start leaving you reduce the price by just a bit (and present a sweet promo that will be gone by the end of the month and only pops up when you cancel...haha). But the new "discounted" price is still more than original, but now you made the uninformed feel like they got a deal! Did you know companies make it intentionally hard to cancel? And then they have services now that can follow your credit card numbers even if you request new numbers/cards from the bank. It auto updates for them. How? Can someone explain that to me? Ultimate level of tracking going on. OTHER SALES MANIPULATIONS: 1. There is no urgency. They can make a deal whenever they want if the C-levels decide to. If they were selling Spotify to a B2B company so all their sales reps get it, they can offer whatever they want to that company. If you have the ear of the c-levels they can approve anything as long as the gross margins are right. Did they make profit after all the expenses incurred or is it a loss leader? And that is with paying all of the managers, sales reps, CSMs, etc bonuses. I could literally get my customers any price as long as it was above our "floor". And even then exceptions were made if we could cut out extra marketing costs etc...There was no deal that would VANISH. FAKE. 2. Price gouging. Why do we hate on MLMs if aesthetic medical device is exactly the same? A pyramid scheme. I sold a doctor in Utah a RF, IPL workstation device and she paid $44k that was $49, 900 list. My executives realized a competitor was selling a similar device that could treat dry eyes with RF treatment to the eye...for over $100k. So they decided to up the price for the device I had just sold to $119, 900. Overnight. Same expenses as before. Same product. But much higher profit. And then they wanted to force her to sign an NDA to silence her because she was giving glowing reviews to the purchasing experience, the product and her mistake was she mentioned the price she paid $44k. SHE WAS HAPPY! SHE WAS SELLING FOR US! She was convincing doctors around the USA to go with us. She was getting us referrals and was reviewing us. They refused to pay her referral money. We could have taken over the market by giving so much value at $44k. Instead...they chose greed. 🦁 COMPANIES. You have an opportunity to be a hero right now and get music to people's ears for cheaper to help boost "spirit" and instead you choose to do this? SHAME 🔔

Spotify held its quarterly earnings call yesterday, shortly after publishing its Q2 financials. One of the first topics that came up was the company missing its guidance to analysis on monthly active users (MAUs) growth. While its 626 million MAUs were up 14% year-on-year, they were 5m less than Spotify had predicted. CEO Daniel Ek outlined two things Spotify is doing to juice the growth of its free tier. “First, we’re intensifying our efforts to improve the impact of our marketing, and we believe there are a number of levers to pull over the upcoming quarters,” he told analysts. “Second, we are prioritising enhancements in our free product pipeline that, based on existing performance in certain markets, should boost engagement and retention, especially in our developing markets. Ek added that “while I am disappointed with our MAU miss, I see the reversal as more of a when rather than an if… overall, we’re seeing healthy MAU engagement trends year-over-year, so the users we are now acquiring we’re also retaining, which is a great leading indicator for value and future monetisations.” Read The Full Story Here: https://lnkd.in/dy43-E9v #Spotify #Streaming #MusicIndustry #musically #musicnews #readmore

Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT) shares still lots of "room to run", said UBS as it upgraded its rating on the music streaming giant on the back of an expected break-even performance in the second half of 2023. Ahead of earnings from the company on February 6, Spotify's continued focus on improving efficiency is leading to growing confidence from the analysts about management's ability to expand profit margins and improve its overall financial performance. This improvement is expected to be supported by an increase in subscribers and monthly active users, regular price hikes, and rising advertising revenue, all contributing to a more favorable earnings outlook. Analysts predict that following Spotify's break-even results in the second half of 2023, the company will generate over €770 million of EBITDA in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of about 50% through to 2027. More at #Proactive #ProactiveInvestors #NYSE #SPOT http://ow.ly/aXEF105epTF

Sure, the stock went up, but Spotify's latest price hike is destined to devalue the service with consumers (and musicians, after the CEO loftily declared that the music Spotify #streams is "zero-cost content" - a paraphrase, but really?). Younger shoppers are already maxing out on #membership costs, with younger #Millennials spending over $250 a year on average on just retail memberships (think Prime, Walmart+, Instacart+, Dashpass), with #GenZ close behind. Factor in multiple #streaming services for music, video and gaming, and you've got a #subscription-weary shopper who is going to be evaluating the #value each service provides and whether it's really worth the cost. For more on Kantar's Retail Membership Readout, visit: https://lnkd.in/e8xwTHrV Consulting by Kantar https://lnkd.in/eKNCSa3j?

Spotify announced earnings earlier this week. Overall, it was a good report. However, in the details we can see why streaming growth is slowing. It has to do where the company’s gains are coming from. About a third (32%) of Spotify’s users now come from “rest of world,” the tertiary areas outside N. America, Europe, & Latin America. Four years ago, it was 16%. These users are much, much less valuable to the company than users in more developed economies. As an example, a premium Spotify subscription in Pakistan is just over $1 USD/ month - more than 16x cheaper than in Denmark (over $16 USD/ month). These rest of world users are also much more likely to be using the less lucrative ad-supported product. As a result, we’ve seen Spotify’s average revenue per user (ARPU) drop significantly over the last few years. It’s fine to trade ARPU for overall growth - and it’s a fairly common thing as a company scales globally. But at some point you run out of people. #musicindustry #musicbusiness #spotify #streaming

**It's Spotify earnings time** Spotify just announced Q2 earnings. Shares surged by more than 10% following a report of record quarterly profits, continued subscriber growth, and strong guidance for the rest of the year. Despite *two* sub price hikes in the last year, premium users grew 12% to 246M, and revenue is up 21%. Not even Disney+ has managed to grow like this after price hikes. Q3 is also expected to strong when the last price raise (in June) is fully felt. While this is good news for the company (and I would argue for music overall), this is bound to make their drama with the publishers more pronounced. They'll have to defend their bundling strategy and cut in publisher payments in the face of profitability. #musicindustry #musicbusiness #streaming #spotify

Spotify hits record quarterly profit as it enters ‘new phase’ Pioneer of music streaming kicks off more mature era for its business after years of freer spending Spotify reported net income of €197mn in the three months to the end of March, compared with a loss of €225mn in the same period a year ago © Bloomberg Spotify hits record quarterly profit as it enters ‘new phase’ on x (opens in a new window) Spotify hits record quarterly profit as it enters ‘new phase’ on facebook (opens in a new window) Spotify hits record quarterly profit as it enters ‘new phase’ on linkedin (opens in a new window) Share Save current progress 67% Anna Nicolaou in New York YESTERDAY 47 Print this page Spotify turned the largest quarterly profit in its 18-year history as chief executive Daniel Ek makes good on his promise of a “new phase” for the streaming group after decades of freer spending. Spotify reported net income of €197mn on €3.6bn in revenue in the three months to the end of March. In the same period a year ago, it lost €225mn on €3bn in revenue. But its austerity, such as pulling back on marketing spending, had an impact on user growth in the quarter. Monthly active users reached 615mn, lower than the 618mn Spotify had forecast, which it blamed on “moderated marketing activity”. “In hindsight we probably pulled back too significantly,” Ek told investors on a call, adding that he was “already correcting this”. The company added 3mn paying subscribers to reach a total of 239mn, in line with forecasts. Spotify and Netflix, the pioneers of streaming for music and television, respectively, have entered a more mature phase for their businesses. In a sign of the times, Netflix last week said it would stop reporting its subscriber numbers — a metric that has been a crucial benchmark for Wall Street in the streaming era — in favour of measuring engagement. After pressure from investors, including activist ValueAct which complained that Spotify’s expenses had “exploded”, Ek last year said the company he founded in 2006 would enter a new era. Since then, Spotify has been turning the screw on customers with price rises while cutting expenses. Recommended Inside BusinessAnna Nicolaou Streaming model for music set for a streamlining Spotify last year cut more than 2,000 employees, or roughly a quarter of its workforce, and in December Ek said he would hire a new chief financial officer “with a different mix of experiences” for this “new phase”. The company earlier this month appointed Christian Luiga as its chief financial officer. Luiga, who will be based in Sweden, joins from security and defence company Saab. Spotify’s gross profit margins in the quarter rose to 27.6 per cent, up from 25.2 per cent a year ago. Ek on Tuesday admitted that the large job cuts had taken a toll, citing them as one reason for the company’s slower user growth.

Spotify has hailed a “strong Q4 performance” in its latest financial results, covering the final quarter of 2023. They reveal that the company ended the year with 236 million premium subscribers, having added 10 million during Q4, and 31 million over the whole of 2023. That’s a year-on-tear rise of 15%. Spotify had 602 million monthly active users at the end of December, up 23% from the 489 million it had a year before. That means its ad-supported users are outstripping its premium subscribers in growth, up 28% year-on-year to 379 million free listeners. However, both totals were 1m more than Spotify had predicted in its analyst guidance. Was it profitable? Read our full story for the details... https://lnkd.in/e2hQBd9b

X Marks the Spotify I'll admit it. Spotify has proven me wrong. Despite losing half a billion dollars in 2023, Spotify has been profitable for three consecutive quarters - a record for them. But is this an actual trend, or simply a three hit wonder? They raised subscription prices in 1Q. But this does not seem to have slowed paid sub growth at all - in fact, just the opposite. Fast growing sub revenues, combined with REPEATED staff cuts, goosed Spotify’s operating income 208% in 2Q. THAT is why their shares spiked 13% in days post earnings. Simultaneously, however, ad revenues and free monthly active user growth have slowed. Spotify has long promised that ads would make up 20% of their total revenue. By this measure they are headed in the wrong direction. 👇 THAT is likely why shares have since leveled off, down 5% in the last few days. Spotify’s business model relies on licensed content from labels and artists. Both are pressuring for fee increases. What's more, in their earnings, Universal Music Group reported that (beyond Spotify) sub growth for music streaming is slowing. Add that together, along with massive competitive pressure from YouTube and Apple, and it remains to be seen how long if Spotify can keep proving me wrong and keep their profitable streak going. At the link I compare Spotify's results with UMG's, and give you a breakdown of earnings from Comcast, Charter Communications, Google, Publicis, IPG Mediabrands, Omnicom Media Group, and Netflix. https://lnkd.in/eRCHwdjE This week is a huge week for #earningsseason. Get your bearings before it gets started!

🎵 #BigTech stocks disappointed investors last week but Spotify seems to have bucked the trend. The music streaming giant delivered strong Q2 2024 results, with a 20% revenue increase and significant profitability gains. However, the company faces challenges, particularly with the music industry over recent subscription model changes. 👉 https://lnkd.in/egh_F692 📈 While user growth is robust, tensions over royalty payments and content costs loom large. Spotify's strategic focus on expanding content offerings and improving margins will be crucial in navigating these industry disputes and maintaining its growth trajectory. #Spotify #RevenueGrowth #MusicIndustry #SubscriptionModel #FinancialPerformance