苹果试图主宰音乐流媒体领域

When Spotify raised more than $500m this month ina funding round that valued the music streamingcompany at $8.5bn, investors played down the riskof it being crushed in a bruising battle with Apple.

本月，当Spotify在一轮融资环节中筹资逾5亿美元时，投资者轻看了该公司在与苹果(Apple)的残酷交锋中被击败的风险。此次融资对这家音乐流媒体公司的估值为85亿美元。

After all, the Swedish start-up was on a roll.Subscriber numbers had doubled over the past yearto 20m, up from 15m in January, giving the companya big lead over rivals in the race for control of thefast-growing market.

毕竟，这家瑞典初创企业好事连连。过去一年，Spotify付费用户数量增加一倍，至2000万，1月时付费用户数量还是1500万，这令该公司在控制这个增长迅速的市场方面远远领先于竞争对手。

But on Sunday, Apple gave the clearest signal yet of its ambition to dominate this nascentmarket at almost any cost — even if that means burning through a portion of its $200bn cashpile in the process.

但上周日，苹果(Apple)发出了迄今为止最明确的信号，将以几乎任何代价主宰这个新兴市场，即便这意味着在此过程中苹果要耗费其2000亿美元现金储备中的一部分。

Apple’s decision to splash more cash in their direction has been welcomed by people in themusic business, but it represents an ominous development for Spotify. The lossmakingcompany was already under pressure from rights holders — including Ms Swift, who pulled hersongs from the service last year.

苹果希望在该领域投入更多资金的决定受到音乐界人士的欢迎，但对于Spotify而言，这是个不好的征兆。这家亏损公司已面临版权所有者的压力，包括泰勒•斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)，去年，她从Spotify撤下了她所有的歌曲。

Mark Mulligan, analyst at Midia Research, says Apple’s move to pay higher royalty rates thanSpotify may be a calculated move to put pressure on the market leader.

Midia Research分析师马克•穆里根(Mark Mulligan)表示，苹果支付的版税费用将高于Spotify，此举可能是苹果在有意向这位市场领军企业施压。

One danger is that Spotify may be forced to match Apple’s payments to the music industry. ForSpotify’s investors, this would be a disaster. Earlier this month Apple said it would pay as muchas 73 per cent of Apple Music’s revenues to record labels and music publishers — beatingSpotify by three percentage points.

一种危险是Spotify可能会被迫与苹果支付的版税一致。对于Spotify的投资者而言，这将是一场灾难。本月早些时候，苹果表示，将最多把苹果流媒体服务Apple Music收入的73%支付给唱片公司和音乐发行商，比Spotify高出3个百分点。

Mr Mulligan says it is entirely possible that Spotify will be able to capitalise on its first-moveradvantage and reach 35m subscribers within five years, which would give it more than half thepaid-for streaming market.

穆里根表示，Spotify完全有可能利用先发优势，在5年内获得3500万付费用户，占领超过一半的付费音乐流媒体市场。

However, he cautions that it is also easy to envisage a scenario in which Apple overtakesSpotify. Whichever company comes out on top, he warns that Spotify will need to find a way tocut dramatically its costs as “the current model is not commercially sustainable.

然而，他警告称，苹果取代Spotify的可能性也很大。他警告称，不管是哪家公司登顶，Spotify都需要设法大幅削减成本，因为“目前的模式在商业上是不可持续的。