Spotify, one of the world’s leading music streaming site, has just shared in a rare update of its usage data that it currently has more than 10 million paying subscribers and more than 40 million monthly active users.
Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had approximately 10 million total users as of 15 September 2010, about 2.5 million of whom were paying users. Total users reached 20 million by December 2012, 5 million of whom pay a monthly subscription fee that varies based on locale.
The company hasn’t officially updated its usage numbers since March last year, when the company said it had more than six million paying users and more than 24 million active users.
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According to a report by Wall Street Journal, part of the increase in usage is a result of Spotify’s rapid and costly international expansion. The company, which was founded in 2006 and rolled out its music subscription service in 2008, has more than doubled the number of markets it is available in over the course of the past year—to a total of 56 markets world-wide.
In March 2014, Spotify tied up with Coca Cola to launch its service in the Philippines.
Earlier in April, for the first time ever in Singapore, digital music sales overtook those of CDs and records sales last year. However, this was not because of a huge increase in the digital music sales, but rather far fewer CDs had been sold.
In terms of numbers, sales for digital music hit US$5.5 million last year, up 28 per cent from 2012. However, sales of CDs and records dipped by 44 per cent in the same period to S$4.5 million (US$S$4.5 million), based on data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
As a comparison, 5 years back in 2009, sales of CDs and records were worth US$18.8 million and digital music sales were just US$3.4 million.
The online music streaming space is competitive, with the active players being Deezer and KKBox, other than Spotify. YouTube, is also earmarked to be launching their own music streaming site soon.
Also read: For the first time ever, digital music sales overtake CDs sales in Singapore