Spotify has raised prices for the second time in a year, with no new benefits, after its CEO sparked outrage by claiming the cost of creating 'content' is 'close to zero' - eviltoast
  • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 months ago

    Honestly €56 million in profit seems small for an operation as massive as Spotify that has so throughly saturated the market. That does not make it excusable at all. I’m just surprised to see that number.

    • Infynis@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      I’m sure there’s tons they’ve made that their accountants have managed to classify as something other than “profit,” so they don’t have to pay taxes on it

      • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        I mean I understand there are a lot of caveats to that statement. Like I said, just kind of a surprising number. A company as massive as Spotify can have its revenue shift 10 of millions easily within a year, which means with a little nudge they could easily become unprofitable.

        It would be like, I don’t know, realizing after you’ve paid all of your bills and groceries everything you have $300 at the end of the month. Not a lot of wiggle room. This isn’t sympathy and the stakes aren’t the same lol, I’m just saying their margins are not as high as I would have suspected.

        A cursory search shows me competing figures - 7000+ and 15000+ employees. Both are very, very large numbers. Id have guessed they make hundreds of millions a year, not mid-8 figures. That’s probably what their payroll runs for 3-6mo.

        Edit: for perspective, they have over 200mill paying subscribers. If ~800,000 left they’d be break even. That’s like .4% of their MAU’s.

        • exanime@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          It would be like, I don’t know, realizing after you’ve paid all of your bills and groceries everything you have $300 at the end of the month. Not a lot of wiggle room

          Well that depends… if I have only $300 at the end of the month but I have already paid every bill and allocated $1,000,000 for entertainment, another $1,000,000 for personal expenses, another $1,000,000 for pet services, etc etc etc… the $300 left mean nothing… why do I need “wiggle room” when I can not just wiggle but literally run in every direction until I get tired and still not hit any limits?

          The relatively small profit margin is a PR strategy… one that is working well on you giving you the false impression the company is “tight” when in reality, they are milking every bit of it before you get to that figure.

            • exanime@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              if it makes you not buy into their subscription, then it’s poor PR… if it makes you think they are not greedy fucks, then it’s good PR

              • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                5 months ago

                None of this impacts whether or not I pay them. It makes me think they are wasteful and greedy. Those are not mutually exclusive

                • exanime@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  if it makes you change your opinion of them but not enough to either pay them or stop paying them, then it means nothing to them

                  • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                    5 months ago

                    The only reasons I should pay or not pay for something are 1) quality of service for the cost and 2) ethical considerations.

                    Poor management does not factor in unless i am dependent on it for work. This is purely entertainment. Their being dumbasses is not a factor.

                    You’re kind of moving the goalposts here as well. This is a silly debate at this point. All I said was I was surprised at the stated profit.

      • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        If it’s profit it’s net by definition. Gross can’t be profit. You’re thinking of revenue. Gross is total revenue before any costs deducted.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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          5 months ago

          You may need to realign your usage of phrases. Their 2024 Q1 financial statement has a line for “gross profit” and “net income/(loss) attributable to the owners of the parent.”

          • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            5 months ago

            I’m going off the number from the article that your dude linked. The guy said “€58 million in profit.” Totally possible he’s wrong though.

            • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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              5 months ago

              I’m just saying there is a difference between “gross profit” and “net profit” because their official financial statement differentiates between it.

        • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          I dunno, my QuickBooks shows me gross and net profit. Gross profit is your income after you remove cost of goods sols (COGS). Net profit is what the org nets after everything else like payroll and other expenses.