Music-streaming giant Spotify Technology SA (NYSE: SPOT) made its long-awaited public debut on the New York Stock Exchange in April to great success. After opening at $165.90 per share on its first day of trading, Spotify stock has remained robust over the last month; shares have fallen 3% since its debut. Spotify's public listing marked a significant milestone for the Swedish streaming company, whose business has changed the music industry. Digital music consumption drove the sector toward a third consecutive year of growth in 2017, according to a recent report from Midia. Revenues from streaming - which include paid subscriptions to platforms like Spotify - accounted for 43% of all earnings in the global music industry in 2017.
The more traditional sectors of the music industry stand to gain substantially from the stock market debuts of streaming companies like Spotify. Since Spotify made its public debut on April 3, observers have watched major record companies for their response. Three major labels - Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group - each hold equity stakes in the Stockholm-based company, the result of a series of licensing negotiations between the record companies and Spotify in 2011.
The day after Spotify began trading on the NYSE, Sony Corp (NYSE: SNE) announced that it sold a portion of its Spotify stock holdings in a transaction completed the day before. Before the transaction, Sony had controlled a 5.7% share of Spotify. The deal saw Sony part with 17.2% of its stake in Spotify in exchange for an undisclosed figure, initially estimated at more than $250 million, based on the opening price of $165.90 per share. Sony's sell-off leaves the company with 82.8% of its original Spotify stake in actively trading shares; its remaining 4.8% stake in the music-streaming company has been valued at more than $1 billion.
Though Sony has remained quiet on the details of the deal, the company simultaneously announced that it expected to record a profit of 105 billion yen (approximately $986 million) in the first fiscal quarter.
In theory, Sony has agreed to share any net gain from the sale of its Spotify stock with its artists. The company released a statement reaffirming a vague promise to give its artists a cut of its Spotify profits: "Sony Music and the Orchard are committed to sharing with their artists and distributed labels any net gain they may realize from a sale of Sony Music's equity stake in Spotify. This is consistent with our previously announced policy."
Sony's immediate move to offload some of its Spotify shares has piqued interest in how the other major record labels plan to use their substantial stock holdings in the company. According to reports, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group (EPA: VIV) both hold estimated 4% stakes in the streaming company. But neither Warner Music nor Universal Music Group has yet made any public moves toward selling off its shares. The CEO of Universal Music Group's parent company, Vivendi, recently affirmed that his company intends to keep its stake of Spotify, calling the streaming company "a strategic partner."