


Rishi Sunak on Tuesday became Britain's third prime minister this year and the first person of colour to lead the former imperial power, vowing to overcome an economic crisis provoked by the "mistakes" of Liz Truss's calamitous 49-day tenure. Some analysts theorized that Spotify's decision to hike its subscription prices in 30 markets in April 2021, in a bid to boost revenues, dissuaded new users from signing up in an earnings call in July, Paul Vogel, Spotify's CFO, argued instead that technical glitches had been behind the problem. The stock price dropped almost consistently through the year, as the growth in monthly active users slowed. No, the US doesn’t have $30 trillion in debtīut not long after its stock hit its peak, Spotify correctly worried that covid-19 uncertainties and uneven recoveries from the pandemic would make 2021 a rocky year. Overall podcast consumption more than doubled in that first pandemic year, when it bought the Joe Rogan Experience, the Michelle Obama podcast, and other big brands. Searches for meditation podcasts, and for music that could be tagged “chill” or “instrumental,” increased. Paid subscribers rose sharply, as people stayed at home and listened to Spotify as they cooked, cleaned, or relaxed. The first full year of the covid-19 pandemic had been good for Spotify, its shares nearly doubling in that period. Spotify went public in 2018, and its stock hit an all-time high closing price of $364.59 in February 2021. It’s an uncomfortable fact that Spotify has to contend with as it prepares to announce its fourth-quarter results today (Feb. But Spotify’s stock price has been falling from its mid-pandemic peak for months now-even before Neil Young and other artists started pulling their songs from the streaming platform for hosting Rogan’s podcast and its flimsy views on vaccines. Spotify's banner hangs outside the New York Stock Exchange on the day of its IPO in 2018.
