蘋果試圖主宰音樂流媒體領域

When Spotify raised more than $500m this month in a funding round that valued the music streaming company at $8.5bn, investors played down the risk of it being crushed in a bruising battle with Apple.

本月，當Spotify在一輪融資環節中籌資逾5億美元時，投資者輕看了該公司在與蘋果(Apple)的殘酷交鋒中被擊敗的風險。此次融資對這家音樂流媒體公司的估值爲85億美元。

After all, the Swedish start-up was on a roll. Subscriber numbers had doubled over the past year to 20m, up from 15m in January, giving the company a big lead over rivals in the race for control of the fast-growing market.

畢竟，這家瑞典初創企業好事連連。過去一年，Spotify付費用戶數量增加一倍，至2000萬，1月時付費用戶數量還是1500萬，這令該公司在控制這個增長迅速的市場方面遠遠領先於競爭對手。

But on Sunday, Apple gave the clearest signal yet of its ambition to dominate this nascent market at almost any cost — even if that means burning through a portion of its $200bn cash pile in the process.

但上週日，蘋果(Apple)發出了迄今爲止最明確的信號，將以幾乎任何代價主宰這個新興市場，即便這意味着在此過程中蘋果要耗費其2000億美元現金儲備中的一部分。

Apple’s decision to splash more cash in their direction has been welcomed by people in the music business, but it represents an ominous development for Spotify. The lossmaking company was already under pressure from rights holders — including Ms Swift, who pulled her songs from the service last year.

蘋果希望在該領域投入更多資金的決定受到音樂界人士的歡迎，但對於Spotify而言，這是個不好的徵兆。這家虧損公司已面臨版權所有者的壓力，包括泰勒•斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)，去年，她從Spotify撤下了她所有的歌曲。

Mark Mulligan, analyst at Midia Research, says Apple’s move to pay higher royalty rates than Spotify may be a calculated move to put pressure on the market leader.

Midia Research分析師馬克•穆里根(Mark Mulligan)表示，蘋果支付的版稅費用將高於Spotify，此舉可能是蘋果在有意向這位市場領軍企業施壓。

One danger is that Spotify may be forced to match Apple’s payments to the music industry. For Spotify’s investors, this would be a disaster. Earlier this month Apple said it would pay as much as 73 per cent of Apple Music’s revenues to record labels and music publishers — beating Spotify by three percentage points.

一種危險是Spotify可能會被迫與蘋果支付的版稅一致。對於Spotify的投資者而言，這將是一場災難。本月早些時候，蘋果表示，將最多把蘋果流媒體服務Apple Music收入的73%支付給唱片公司和音樂發行商，比Spotify高出3個百分點。

Mr Mulligan says it is entirely possible that Spotify will be able to capitalise on its first-mover advantage and reach 35m subscribers within five years, which would give it more than half the paid-for streaming market.

穆里根表示，Spotify完全有可能利用先發優勢，在5年內獲得3500萬付費用戶，佔領超過一半的付費音樂流媒體市場。

However, he cautions that it is also easy to envisage a scenario in which Apple overtakes Spotify. Whichever company comes out on top, he warns that Spotify will need to find a way to cut dramatically its costs as “the current model is not commercially sustainable”.

然而，他警告稱，蘋果取代Spotify的可能性也很大。他警告稱，不管是哪家公司登頂，Spotify都需要設法大幅削減成本，因爲“目前的模式在商業上是不可持續的”。