Spotify, the music streaming company, has filed paperwork to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, in an indication that it is pressing on with a unique plan to go public.
Beginning the regulatory process for a listing means the popular music service could be the first large, well-known market debut of 2018, after a rebound in initial public offering activity last year. The Swedish group filed the documents confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Spotify declined to comment. By the end of the first half of the year, Spotify plans to pursue a so-called direct listing, which means investors will be able to trade shares on the open market without the conventional IPO process. People briefed on the plans have said the company does not feel it needs to raise money, making the direct listing an attractive option.
Streaming services
The news segues well with the announcement that music sales in the UK are rising at the fastest rate since the turn of the century, driven by the continued boom in streaming services and led by artists such as Ed Sheeran. Nic Fildes reports the BPI, the music industry trade body, has found that services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer drove a 9.5 per cent rise in music consumption in 2017, with the 68.1 billion songs streamed last year accounting for more than half of overall music consumption.
The most streamed artists include Sheeran, Little Mix and Kendrick Lamar although the overall charts included older acts such as Roy Orbison and George Michael, who died at the end of 2016, among the top sellers.
The Entertainment Retailers Association said sales of overall entertainment products, which include music, video games and movies, also hit an all-time high of £7.2 billion sales last year with digital services accounting for 71 per cent of that. However, music accounted for just 16 per cent of the UK entertainment market.
The BPI said vinyl had continued its comeback, with sales up £88 million to their highest since 1991. The old-fashioned album now accounts for one in 10 albums sold in a physical format. Sheeran topped the vinyl charts for 2017. The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac also featured, with heritage acts continuing to sell well on the older format. Kim Bayley, chief executive of the ERA, said a physical product was most popular when it “offers something distinctive and additional to the content, whether it be the tactile experience of vinyl or the simple fact that physical objects work well as gifts”.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018
