Spotify makes more cash for Universal than iTunes

Also adds sharing on Twitter

26 August 2009 18:01 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Universal Music Sweden has admitted that Spotify makes it more money than iTunes does. "In five months from the launch, Spotify became our largest digital source of income and so passed by iTunes", said Per Sundin, managing director of Universal Music.

"It's a fantastic development, explained by the fact that Spotify really has exploded", he added. The admission brings with it a whole host of questions - none of which we have many answers to. How much is Spotify paying the labels? Could this be why the iPhone app still hasn't been approved? Does this validate ad-funded music as a business model?

Other streaming music services have been forced to cut back coverage due to the egregious royalty rates charged for music streaming by the major labels and publishers. However - since it was revealed that the labels are shareholders in Spotify, many have asked if they're being given preferential rates.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday Spotify rolled out a tiny update to its streaming client that allows you to share songs via Twitter. However, unfortunately they're shared as a full HTTP link, rather than as a shortened URL.

If the functionality isn't live for you, then close and re-open the application and it should update to version 0.3.19.

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