Spotify CEO: We’re Aren't Going The Way Of Facebook

Spotify, the music streaming service, is doing remarkable business, almost a year after it debuted in the U.S. In the last 12 months, the Swedish-based company had revenues of $886 million, up 160 percent from the year before, according to TechCrunch. Since launching in the U.S. on July 14, Spotify has seen tremendous growth despite losing around $60 million. To date, the service has 13 million monthly customers, with three million being paying customers. In total, the company has a valuation of $4 billion. Despite the growth, however, Spotify isn’t going the way of Zynga, Groupon, and soon Facebook, and going public. Says Daniel Ek, the CEO of the music streaming company:

“We want to build this company long term. The stock exchange is not an option for us.”

Going forward, Spotify expects the music industry to grow, despite being hit hard when music went digital just over a decade ago. In 1999, the entire music industry accounted for $44 billion in sales each year. Today, that number is around one-third of that. Says Ek:

“Our secret recipe is that we have made people change their behavior and now want access to music that they share with their friends using our playlists,” he said. “The more users we have to share their playlists, the faster users build up their collections. There is constantly increasing their willingness to pay for the service. The longer you use Spotify, the more likely you are to start paying for Spotify.”

Unfortunately, we still don’t know when Spotify will launch its own iPad app. Despite arriving for iPhone quickly following its 2011 U.S. launch, the service has yet to jump to Apple’s tablet. Are you still using Spotify, nearly a year after it launched in the U.S.? If not, who is your preferred music streaming service?

Mentioned apps

Related articles