- Spotify and record labels have hyped “Superfan” levels for some time
- Spotify’s Daniel Ek now seems to control expectations: it doesn’t arrive immediately
- He says they need their partners to work with them on it
Has Spotify shreds his own ‘superfan’ subscription level? It certainly sounds like that: During the streamer’s latest financial earnings call, Daniel Ek answered a question of “a superfan product” by saying that the existing subscription plans offered were “plenty for us”.
As we reported back in February, Spotify was expected to launch a “Superfan” Premium level this year; Record company and EK have talked about it a few times, and in November 2024, EK answered a question about it by saying, “I can’t get into details, but I think I’ve left enough bread crumbs to you to get excited.”
The most likely reason for the sudden downgrade in the voltage department? Record companies and concert promoters.
What is it to stop Superfan?
When asked “Can you share more details about what makes you enthusiastic about the product and when it may be available on the market?”, Replied Chief Business Officer Alex Nostrom:
“Now, in terms of higher levels, we see great potential in them that we have mentioned before. So creating higher levels around new offers is something we are working on as a truly opening up new opportunities to please users cases. A new value-to-price relationship if you want. And of course we need adaptation and support from our industry partners to offer these kinds of new experiences to our users.”
Daniel Ek then explained how the Superfan concept could be “a huge part of the music industry,” but “this is really one where I would again emphasize superfan, we need the partners to come to the table and are part of this journey.”
You don’t have to be a weatherman to train which way the wind blows here: Everyone thinks Superfan levels will make lots of money and the record companies will have the brother party of it.
According to Hypebot, Spotify – and other streamers – have also tried to get the ticket giant Live Nation on board so Superfans would have early access to concert tickets.
It can be a really big deal because Presalges are Big Business. But Live Nation doesn’t seem very excited about the prospect of getting another presal partner on board.
On the question of such agreements, CEO Michael Rapino using a lot of words where he could probably just have shrugged instead: “Spotify and Apple and Amazon, they have approached us, we have talked to them all, if they wanted fixtures. is for purpose which is a very valuable use. ”
So until this curse is, oh, it seems that there will be a wait for these new kinds of subscriptions. EK said in the earnings shell, “I think you should expect in the short term and midterm growth […] Just work on our existing subscriptions the family is planning, all these things [are] Lots enough for us. “
