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Spotify to be muted in Swedish churches

Music played via streaming service Spotify will be banned in Sweden’s churches from April 1st.

Published: 23 March 2019 16:38 CET
Spotify to be muted in Swedish churches
Spotify's head office in Stockholm. Photo: Lars Pehrson/SvD/TT

From the beginning of next month, anyone who plans to play music at a wedding, baptism or funeral will have to find an alternative source to the streaming option, radio station P4 Kristiansand reports.

The Swedish audio platform’s decision to end its Spotify Business service, which the Church of Sweden currently uses to play pre-recorded music, means other formats are likely to make a comeback.

“Subscriptions for the (Spotify) service will be cancelled and will no longer work. Private Spotify accounts, like you or I and many others have, are not, and never have been, permitted for use for playing music or songs in public places,” Lund Diocese lawyer Anders Eriksson told the radio station.

Those who want to play pre-recorded music in Swedish churches will, in future, have to bring their own CD or legally downloaded music, according to the report.

READ ALSO: The story of Spotify: Sweden's controversial king of music streaming

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BUSINESS

Spotify reports strong growth in users as it announces price rise

Spotify on Tuesday reported a bigger-than-expected rise in active users at the end of the second quarter, a day after the music streaming giant announced price increases for its premium service.

Published: 25 July 2023 14:30 CEST
Spotify reports strong growth in users as it announces price rise

The Swedish company, which is listed on the New York stock exchange, said it’s total active users rose 27 percent to 551 million year-on-year, or 21 million more than it expected. The number of paying subscribers also rose, with a 17 percent jump to 220 million — three million more than expected.

On Monday, the company announced it was raising its prices for premium subscribers “across a number of markets around the world,” following in the footsteps of similar moves by competing music services from Apple and Amazon.

Despite the boost in users, Spotify reported a bigger operating loss of 247 million euros ($273 million) in the second quarter, compared to a loss of 194 million euros for the same period a year earlier.

The company said it was “primarily impacted by charges related to our actions to streamline operations and reduce costs.”

In early June, Spotify announced it would be cutting some 200 positions working with podcasts.

That move came after a January announcement that Spotify was cutting around 600 jobs — equalling about six percent of its workforce — following similar moves by other tech industry giants.

Spotify has invested heavily since its launch to fuel growth with expansions into new markets and, in later years, exclusive content such as
podcasts. It has invested over a billion dollars into podcasts alone.

In 2017, the company had around 3,000 staff members, more than tripling the figure to around 9,800 at the end on 2022.

The company has never posted a full-year net profit and only occasionally quarterly profits despite its success in the online music market.

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