Cartoon of the Week: Spotify files to go public on New York Stock Exchange

Music streaming service Spotify is officially going public and has this week filed a prospectus to sell shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘SPOT’.

This is a sign that the music streaming market is maturing and thus beginning to revive the long-struggling music industry.

The public entry is expected to happen in late March or early April, but we don’t know how much shares will cost.

The company has provided a detailed disclosure about its business. The filing shows that Spotify’s revenue for last year was €4.09 billion compared to €2.95 billion the previous year. The losses for last year were also higher at €1.2 billion.

Spotify has also faced other major obstacles like competition from smartphone makers (Apple, Amazon and Google) as well as lawsuits for failing to find and pay all rights holders.

The Swedish company is opting for an unusual process and is well aware of how ‘risky’ its chosen alternative is. It claims that it won’t sell its shares on the stock market but will instead pursue direct listing. Spotify’s existing investors and insiders, like employees, can also trade their shares on the open market.

The company says that it is positioning itself in a benevolent light not just for the music industry but also for the fans. Spotify’s prospectus summary overview states: ‘Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators.’

Spotify is obviously ambitious about its move. But given that it has opted for a direct listing, in addition to some of the obstacles mentioned above, might that harm its debut on the public market and make it volatile? This will obviously be covered in depth on stock market news sites so definitely stay tuned

Follow eXo Platform's board Cartoon of the Week on Pinterest.

eXo Platform 6 Free Datasheet

Download the eXo Platform 6 Datasheet and
discover all the features and benefits

Download Now

Tags: eXo, Cartoon

5/5 - (1 vote)

Nouha Blagui

I am a marketer and social media junkie. I work to optimise eXo’s online brand with content, social media technologies and digital marketing. I mainly write cartoons but I am also a big fan of topics related to internal communications in the digital workplace. I would love to connect with you, so get in touch and join our LinkedIn group ‘Intranet & Digital Workplace’.