Every week, we bring you the top stories and analyses from the global Subscription Economy!
Everyone wants to build a giant consumer subscription business. Spotify already has one.
By Peter Kafka in Recode
Peter Kafka is “most bullish” about the business Spotify has built and is building because of its 71 million paid subscribers.”Those subscribers pay Spotify a bunch of money. But that’s not the most important thing about them. It’s that Spotify has a direct billing relationship with most of them. And in 2018, running your own, large direct-to-consumer subscription business — which works on any platform or device, even those that aren’t psyched about it being there — looks like a very attractive, valuable thing.”
Meet Inspire: A Shell-Backed Company With a Unique Smart Energy Subscription
By Julia Pyper in Greentech Media
Under Inspire’s “Smart Energy” subscription model, customers pay a simple flat monthly fee for an integrated smart home experience, energy management services and 100 percent clean electricity. Because it’s a true flat monthly fee, and not just a flat per kilowatt-hour charge, Inspire’s incentives are aligned with the customer’s, said Maloney. The less energy their customers use, the more money the company makes, which enables Inspire to offer customers rewards for the energy-saving actions they take.
F1 TV: Series near launch
By Sam Hall in AutoWeek
Formula 1 has created F1 TV — a commercial-free subscription service where fans can watch all of the action live. The service will provide exclusive access to all 20 driver onboard cameras throughout every race session. It will offer unique feeds not available on any other platform with the capability of multilevel personalization.Subscribers will be able to choose the content they view and how and when they access it. Subscribers will be able to watch live races of the main support series, the FIA Formula 2 Championship, GP3 Series and Porsche Supercup, among others.
MoviePass CEO Expects to Top 5 Million Subscribers By 2019
By Andrew Wallenstein in Variety
According to CEO Mitch Lowe, MoviePass will more than double its current subscriber base of 2 million before 2019.“We’ll be over 5 million paid subscribers by the end of the year and buying roughly 20% of all movie tickets” in the U.S. Asked if he had longer-term projections for how big MoviePass’ audience could grow in 5-10 years time, he said there was room for the U.S. subscriber base to grow 20 million strong, reports Variety.
For more on what’s making news in the Subscription Economy, check out Zuora’s Subscribed Magazine!