Spotify’s success is heavily qualified, though. It may be the Netflix of music, but it’s never posted a profit; in 2022, with nearly a half-billion users around the world, around 200 million of whom pay for the service, it lost 430 million euros (the company is based in Sweden). This weird, loser-take-all outcome — which happens from time to time in tech, where dominant firms are allowed to bleed money for years in pursuit of long-term sector domination — means that the music industry’s biggest success story of the 21st century can also seem like it’s flailing. There have been layoffs and a price hike. The company is pulling back from its splashy investment in podcasting. Royalties are by far its biggest operating cost, but outside of a small slice of the highest earners, many artists have been shocked by how little money ends up in their pockets.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/10/spotify-is-eating-the-entire-music-business.html