Spotify hits 75m active users after confirming $526m investment
Apple looked ready to present a Spotify killer with their launch of Apple Music this week, but Daniel Ek’s streaming outfit doesn’t appear to be sweating too much past Monday’s keynote. The Swedish streaming platform is now counting 75 millions active users, a figure that now totals 20 million paid subscribers to the service. Having doubled its paid users since May 2014, Ek’s topical platform also used the marker announcement to confirm an investment injection of $526m, including Swedish teclo giant TeliaSonera and such partners as Goldman Sachs, TCV, GSV Capital and Rinkelberg Capital.
Paired with last week’s reports that Spotify’s royalty payments now total $3 billion and a cocky social media retort from Ek following Apple’s big announcement, the streaming giant is certainly playing it cool despite the increasing competition. There is still a lot of ground to be covered where Spotify’s long-term evolution of royalty payments is concerned, and Apple definitely has the upper hand when it comes to pricing structures and the three-month free trial period, but all signs point to the streaming war being a two horse race for 2015.
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