Drake holds off Beyonce

Spotify earns $2b

LOS ANGELES, May 24, (Agencies): R&B artist Drake held his spot atop the weekly US Billboard 200 album chart on Monday, keeping Beyonce from the coveted No. 1 position.

“Views”, Drake’s fourth studio record, sold another 234,000 units from album and song sales and was streamed more than 186 million times, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).

“Views” debuted at the top of the chart with more than 1 million units in sales after its April 28 release, the biggest opening week so far in 2016.

Drake has managed to keep the top spot from Beyonce’s hit “Lemonade” album, which remained steady at No. 2 with 128,000 units sold in the week ended on May 19.

Drake

Streaming

Beyonce has not made “Lemonade” available for streaming except on premium platform Tidal, limiting its consumption.

Drake, on the other hand, made “Views” available on streaming platforms such as Spotify, which has made up a major portion of weekly sales.

Pop singer Meghan Trainor led the new entries on the Billboard 200 album chart’s top 10 this week with her “Thank You” album debuting at No. 3 with 107,000 units.

Punk band Pierce the Veil entered the chart at No. 4 with “Misadventures.” Chance the Rapper’s “Coloring Book” came in at No. 8, and country singer Jennifer Nettles’ “Playing with Fire” debuted at No. 10.

On the Digital Songs Chart, Justin Timberlake’s upbeat “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” held onto the top spot, keeping Drake’s “One Dance” at No. 2.

Streaming leader Spotify said Monday that its losses deepened last year even as the company topped $2 billion in revenue amid the global boom in online music.

The Swedish company founded in 2008 has been at the forefront of the music industry’s turn to streaming, which offers unlimited music on demand, yet it has never turned a profit itself.

Luxembourg-based holding company Spotify Technologies, submitting its annual earnings report, said its revenue jumped 80 percent to 1.95 billion euros ($2.18 billion) in 2015.

The growth rate is significantly stronger than the 45 percent it charted in 2014 and slightly higher than the 74 percent seen in 2013.

“In many ways, it was our best year ever,” the company said in a message to shareholders, describing Spotify as the top driver of growth for the entire music industry.

The company said its revenue from advertisements nearly doubled and that its user base also grew significantly.

Spotify said it had 89 million active monthly users by the end of 2015, up from 60 million a year earlier, of whom some 28 million were paying for subscriptions.

The company’s founder, Daniel Ek, had said in March that Spotify reached 30 million paying subscribers.

But the growth did not erase losses, with Spotify putting a priority on investments at a stage when streaming is increasingly becoming mainstream.

The company’s net losses totaled 173 million euros, nearly seven percent deeper than a year before.

“We believe our model supports profitability at scale,” the company said.

“We believe that we will generate substantial revenues as our reach expands and that, at scale, our margins will improve,” it added.

“We will therefore continue to invest relentlessly in our product and marketing initiatives to accelerate reach.”

Spotify’s growth is all the more remarkable as last year marked a pause in its international expansion. It resumed its global push this year, adding Indonesia as its 59th country.

But Spotify also faces growing competition.