by Felix Richter, Statista.com
Earlier this week, music streaming service Spotify announced that it hit 60 million active users before the end of 2014.
That’s a 20 million increase compared to the company’s last announcement in May 2014 and means that Spotify’s growth has accelerated over the past few months.
Meanwhile the number of paying subscribers grew from 10 million in May to 15 million in December, meaning that the ratio of paying subscribers to active users remained constant at 25 percent. This runs counter to Daniel Ek’s logic. The company’s co-founder and CEO went on record last year saying that more and more people would upgrade to paid subscriptions once they were hooked on streaming music.
Since Spotify is a private company and is as such not obliged to disclose its financials, it is unclear whether the company can turn a profit in its current state. The company states to pay back 70 percent of its revenues to the music industry, leaving it with 30 percent to cover all other expenses.
This chart shows Spotify’s user and subscriber growth.
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