Music streaming service Spotify has managed to reach another milestone in terms of paying subscribers, and this time around, the company has hit 70 million of them. The news was shared on Thursday by the company’s official Twitter account. Based on recent estimates, approximately half of Spotify’s current user base now amounts to paying customers. The firm that’s said to have approximately 140 million users reached 60 million paying subscribers last July and has apparently taken less than six months to add another 10 million.
While Spotify offers its music streaming service free of charge, there is an option for a “Spotify Premium” service whereby users pay a fixed amount on a monthly basis. This add-on removes all ads and introduces a number of features such as the ability to download tracks for offline listening, enjoy unlimited skips, and create as many custom playlists as you want. It happens to be the streaming service with the largest user base at the moment, with its closest competitor being Apple Music, which has about 30 million paying subscribers according to estimates from last September. However, not all is going well for the Swedish company, as a copyright infringement lawsuit has just been filed against the firm by Wixen Music Publishing, demanding $1.6 billion in damages. The suit is filed on the basis that the music streaming service only worked with record labels to license music, instead of meeting with each publisher individually to license their music. Wixen represents hundreds of artists whose creations it’s claiming Spotify is using without a valid license.
On top of that, Spotify has reportedly filed for a much-awaited initial public offering (IPO) late last year and may be looking to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in the coming months with a valuation of approximately $20 billion. Spotify has been around for over a decade, though it only received global recognition after launching its mobile streaming app back in 2011. However, the platform still isn’t profitable and has been recording losses on a yearly basis, though the startup is still an exciting proposition for many investors due to its rapid growth.