
“We like Spotify’s two-sided business model potential, but it will take time to be proven,” Delfas wrote. But it may not be enough to carry the company to big profits, he said in his report on Wednesday rating the shares “neutral.” That creates a two-sided market with a lot of potential, Redburn analyst Nick Delfas noted. And it pitches services to musicians, offering them valuable data about the people who like their music.

Spotify (SPOT) already has two revenue sources, collecting advertising sales from its free service and subscription revenue from its premium service. But analysts still aren’t sure the company should be worth much more than the $27 billion or so indicated by its current share price. It also has a deal with the labels to pay lower royalties as its customer base grows. Spotify says it plans to leverage its customer base of 71 million paying subscribers and 157 million monthly active users at the end of 2017 by offering additional services beyond just music in the future. And it’s facing strong competition from services offered by Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN). But on an operating basis, excluding some financial transaction costs, Spotify lost $465 million, 8% worse than the previous year. Revenue of $5 billion last year was up 39% from 2016.

Spotify has grown quickly, but has yet to find a way to make a profit after paying out huge sums to record labels for the music its customers play. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. Two other firms, Redburn and SEB Equities, also came out with equivalent ratings. Gabelli & Co analyst John Tinker rated Spotify a “hold,” which is often viewed by investors as a negative assessment given how infrequently analysts issue “sell” ratings.
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Not so for the world’s largest music streaming service. In a more typical underwritten deal, most banks would have to wait a couple of weeks before putting out analyst reports, but those reports would usually be pretty positive. The initial sharp drop followed several analyst reports that gave the company’s stock lukewarm ratings. Ultimately, the shares closed down just 2% at $145.87. On Wednesday, a day after Spotify’s shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the price had dropped 6% to $140.02 at midday.
