When Spotify raised more than $500m this month in a funding round that valued the music streaming company at $8.5bn, investors played down the risk of 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，投资者重看了该公司在与苹果(Apple)的残忍交锋中被打败的风险。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 year to 20m, up from 15m in January, giving the company a big lead over rivals in the race for control of the fast-growing market.却是，这家瑞典初创企业好事接连。过去一年，Spotify收费用户数量增加一倍，至2000万，1月时收费用户数量还是1500万，这令其该公司在掌控这个快速增长很快的市场方面相比之下领先于竞争对手。

But on Sunday, Apple gave the clearest signal yet of its ambition to dominate this nascent market at almost any cost — even if that means burning through a portion of its $200bn cash pile in the process.但上周日，苹果(Apple)收到了迄今为止最具体的信号，将以完全任何代价支配这个新兴市场，即便这意味著在此过程中苹果要花费其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 the music business, but it represents an ominous development for Spotify. The lossmaking company was already under pressure from rights holders — including Ms Swift, who pulled her songs from the service last year.苹果期望在该领域投放更加多资金的要求受到音乐界人士的青睐，但对于Spotify而言，这是个很差的征兆。这家亏损公司已面对版权所有者的压力，还包括泰勒斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)，去年，她从Spotify删除了她所有的歌曲。

Mark Mulligan, analyst at Midia Research, says Apple’s move to pay higher royalty rates than Spotify may be a calculated move to put pressure on the market leader.Midia Research分析师马克穆里根(Mark Mulligan)回应，苹果缴纳的版税费用将低于Spotify，此举有可能是苹果在有意向这位市场领军企业施加压力。One danger is that Spotify may be forced to match Apple’s payments to the music industry. For Spotify’s investors, this would be a disaster. Earlier this month Apple said it would pay as much as 73 per cent of Apple Music’s revenues to record labels and music publishers — beating Spotify by three percentage points.一种危险性是Spotify可能会不得不与苹果缴纳的版税完全一致。

对于Spotify的投资者而言，这将是一场灾难。本月早些时候，苹果回应，将最少把苹果流媒体服务Apple Music收益的73%缴纳给唱片公司和音乐发行商，比Spotify高达3个百分点。Mr Mulligan says it is entirely possible that Spotify will be able to capitalise on its first-mover advantage and reach 35m subscribers within five years, which would give it more than half the paid-for streaming market.穆里根回应，Spotify几乎有可能利用先发优势，在5年内取得3500万收费用户，攻占多达一半的收费音乐流媒体市场。

However, he cautions that it is also easy to envisage a scenario in which Apple overtakes Spotify. Whichever company comes out on top, he warns that Spotify will need to find a way to cut dramatically its costs as “the current model is not commercially sustainable”.然而，他警告称之为，苹果代替Spotify的可能性也相当大。他警告称之为，不管是哪家公司登顶，Spotify都必须设法大幅度缩减成本，因为“目前的模式在商业上是不可持续的”。

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