Rhapsody steps up its game…
Rhapsody International is the parent company of both streaming services Rhapsody and Napster. The company has never appointed a CEO before, but as part of a new growth strategy to compete more successfully in the music streaming market, the company has now appointed Mike Davis who will begin the role immediately.
But, why now?
In December last year the streaming service announced that it had grown their subscriber base by 45 percent in less than 12 months and reached 3.5 million global subscribers across 34 countries. Which is a major milestone for the service, but when compared to Spotify’s 30 million paying subscribers and Apple Music’s 11 million, it really highlighted the company’s need to grow at a faster rate.
With new entrants into the streaming market it gave music listeners more variety and choice, and last year Rhapsody reported net losses of $35.5 million, although it did grow its revenue to a recorded $202 million.
Rhapsody hasn’t revealed any increased subscriber numbers since late last year, however the streaming service has reported a 15% increase in listener hours and a 40% increase in the number of hours subscribers listen to music on the Rhapsody mobile app in the last year, which they say is largely due to the addition of new features like ‘Rhapsody KIDS’ and the ‘Listener Network’.
But, this isn’t enough for the service to compete with the likes of Spotify – who are consistently adding value to their service with the addition of weekly personalised playlists, Apple Music – who is growing at an unprecedented rate, and Tidal who is successfully streaming exclusives by major artists to drive its subscriber numbers.
With the new appointment of its first CEO, Rhapsody will be hoping to drive its service forward to better compete in the music streaming market.
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