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Portfolio changes - update 11
Hey fam! I made some moves in my portfolio today for the first time in about 2 weeks.

I sold $SPOT. This one needs a background story, I believe:

So, I started using YT Music recently, just out of curiosity. I tried it out before but:

a) there were some changes made
b) I as well have evolved as an investor and see things slightly different now than say a year ago

So, where do I start? My main thesis for Spotify was mainstream adoption of audio streaming/move away from radio (at least money wise speaking when it comes to ad dollars) to platforms like Spotify. Second, it's their recommendation algorithm. And 3rd a surge in podcasts helping Spotify monetize better, improve margins etc as that's not a traffic from music where to a degree record labels have a leverage over Spotify.

And so... They are all still true to this date but let me tell you what caught my eye instead, with YT Music:

  1. their user experience got better (at least from the last time I used it)
  2. the value for advertisers is awesome IMO, right before I subbed to YT Premium I noticed they pull video ads into YT Music (since there are videoclips in app, too) and so since I'm logging in with my YT account, I'd bet they use the same Ad ID to target me relevantly.
  3. the YT Premium subscription has a great value for standard consumer - you get ad-free YT experience with Originals and some experimental functions solely for YT Premium subs AND YT Music sub in one for just 1,2€ more than Spotify's subscription.
  4. YT Music also offers a great value for artists themselves IMO as when you sub to the artist inside YT Music app you actually sub to them on YouTube as well, therefore providing more traffic, more reach and.... you know how network effects work.

Looking at the latest data, YT does well with YT Music. YT Premium/Music now has over 50 million subscribers, reportedly growing 50% YoY, now holds about 8% market share and finds a great success with young demographics, particularly Gen Z

From my experience, it's still not Spotify level experience, but they are improving. They recently introduced this Wrapped-like review of the year, an equivalent of what Spotify has for years now and I believe there's a proper Podcast integration in the workings, remember Google already has Google Podcasts, so all they have to do is introduce it into the YT Music app. The recommendation algorithm I think is decent, I already found several new songs I added into my playlists. Some of the stuff I didn't like or wanted to be added I emailed as a feedback to devs and am looking forward to hear from them.

So to conclude. YT Music together with Apple Music I consider a nice exposure to the world of audio, and since Spotify was never a core position in my portfolio by any means in terms of conviction, I decided to cut it. Instead, I completed my position in $SNOW and added more to $NET.

Thanks for reading.

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