Spotify has been, and still is, the must-have mobile app for music lovers. Launched in October 2008, the Stockholm-based music app started off as a music streaming subscription service. And despite controversies (like Taylor Swift pulling her album 1989 from from the app last year), Spotify is still going strong and their achievements are undeniably impressive.
In the last two months of 2014 alone, the company attracted 10 million new users, giving the company reason to celebrate the new year — together with 60 million users. Out of these, 15 million are paying subscribers, which means an average 25% conversion rate.
This is an admirable leap from March 2013, when they had 6 million paying subscribers; and 10 million paying subscribers in May 2014 out of more than 40 million monthly active users. That is nearly a whopping 50% increase of total active users from mid 2014 to the end of 2014.
“We had an amazing 2014 at Spotify and owe it all to you, the music fans who listen, discover, share and celebrate music and artists with us every day of the year,” said Spotify in their blog post titled ’15 for 15′.
“So as we set off into the New Year, we want to send a giant thank you to all of you. We can’t wait for the year in music ahead!” posted Spotify on their official page.
Apart from making an impressive achievement, the company is also known for giving the best promotions to their users. Last year, Spotify introduced its “family plan”, where users are allowed to add up to four family members with their own accounts on the service, for just $5 per person. In addition, Spotify offered three months of subscription service for $0.99, rather than the usual cost of $9.99 per month. These two factors could have contributed to the growth of subscribers.
What started out as a simple tool for music lovers to listen to music has steadily grown into a company which might even have the power to shape the music industry. In an increasingly competitive market, though, with apps such as Pandora (who have garnered 76.5 million active listeners), the company may have a lot of catching up to do. However in this case, Spotify has successfully proved to both users and non-users that they have what it takes to rule the online music streaming industry.