Sweden’s music, video, and podcast streaming giant, Spotify, now roughly has about 40 million ‘premium’ customers. The estimation was casually announced by the company’s CEO, Daniel Ek. In contrast, Spotify’s closest competitor, Apple Music, currently has 17 million paying customers, which, of course, is nowhere near what Spotify has achieved.
40 is the new 30.
Million. 😄— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) September 14, 2016
In March, folks at Engadget reported that Spotify had about 30 million customers – so, it took merely six months for Spotify to gain another 10 million more paying customers. Unlike other major content streaming players like Apple Music and Tidal, Spotify provides one important feature that probably allowed it to achieve such high subscription numbers: a free tier. Because of this, Spotify’s overall user base is estimated to be in the region of more than 100 million people – impressive.
Despite this good news, Spotify is no stranger to controversies. Late last year, the company faced a class action lawsuit that, if found guilty, would result in the company being fined RM645 million – mind you, that’s the minimum estimated amount. That said, it is not known whether this issue was resolved recently.
Regardless, for a company that was first established in 2006, and for its streaming service that is only about eight years old, Spotify has done quite well to gain 40 million paying customers.
(Source: Engadget)
