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The last time it updated its figures in January, it said it had 60 million total active users and 15 million paying for the service, while a year ago, it was 40 million and 10 million respectively.
It also mentioned it paid out €2.65 billion in royalties to artists and rights holders, €265 million of that happening in the first three months of 2015, declaring that the service is “good for music, good for music fans … and good for music makers.”
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Spotify has been regularly criticised by smaller musicians and artists for the small amount it pays out to them. After Taylor Swift pulled her catalogue from the service, Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek defended the freemium model saying “our interests are totally aligned with yours. Even if you don’t believe that’s our goal, just look at our business.”
The streaming service also announced a new funding round worth €465 million, giving it a valuation of €7.5 billion.
Both announcements come in response to Apple announcing its music service on Monday. As well as being the first Apple-made app to appear on Android, the service will allow users to stream music, play tracks from their own library and offer playlists curated by experts.
The service costs €9.99 a month but comes with a three-month trial period for users to try out. It will be made available on most Apple devices by the end of the month and on Apple TV and Android devices this autumn.
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A heavily subsidised industry that was losing a lot of money. It would be closed by now even if Thatcher hadn’t done it.
Never liked her but it doesn’t mean everything she did was wrong. The unions were at least partially to blame for the problems.
Long term the mines made no sense but you can’t remove the one think that lets a town exist and not replace it. The closing down should have happened gradually with training for new jobs and attracting new business to the area occurring at the same time
Yes because Co Durham includes town like well Durham which have the university etc. which reduces the unemployment rate, but go outside of that area and it gets pretty grim
Fourteen arrested at Mothers Against Genocide vigil for Gaza outside Leinster House
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