Will Spotify trigger a battle in the online music market?
Analysts still believe that Spotify will have a hard time succeeding in Vietnam, where people usually sign up for free music websites. But others believe they will prosper as their free and paid services offer the same quality of music.
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In the past, there were loopholes in the Copyright Law, so local websites freely posted works of famous musicians and singers. The more listeners they attracted, the bigger profits they made from selling ads.
However, after the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works took effect in Vietnam, after the Center for the Protection of Vietnamese Music Copyright was set up, service providers began to change business strategy.
In 2007, Zing MP3, the first pay-online music site, officially opened the Vietnamese online music market.
However, in Vietnam, where people only wanted to listen to music for free, Zing MP3 had to compromise to lure more customers.
Zing MP3 is now the biggest online music website with 50% of market share. However, most of its clients still choose free music.
Nhaccuatui, nghenhac and nhacvui also provide pay-music service, but the number of clients remains modest.
Nhan The Luan, CEO of nhaccuatui, said that that in Vietnam online music websites have to seek revenue from different sources.
Meanwhile, hundreds of unlicensed online music websites still exist, challenging state management agencies and competing with authentic service providers.
In such circumstances, Spotify in March 2018 announced its official presence in Vietnam.
Launched on March 13, the website aims to change the way Vietnamese people listen to music - copyrighted music that requires royalty payment.
Spotify Asian Market Director Sunita Kaur said that though the Vietnamese market is not large, it has potential.
To attract listeners, Spotify offers two services, free and paid music. Ads occasionally appear on the free version.
Spotify said the quality of the two services is the same, which is different from Zing MP3. Free music on Zing MP3 is at 128 Kbps, the paid service has higher quality, 320 Kbps.
Spotify now only accepts payment via Visa/Master Card. Zing Mp3 and Nhaccuatui accept other payment methods, including via scratch cards and e-wallets such as Zalo Pay and MoMo.
The subscription fee is VND59,000 a month, the same as Apple Music in Vietnam, cheaper than other markets, but higher than the fee set by other music websites.
