Spotify Surpasses 60 Million Paid Subscribers, Ready to go Public

It’s been a milestone year for the music streaming service giant, Spotify, who announced that as of July 2017, it has over 60 million paid subscribers. 
July’s milestone comes four months after the streaming service provider surpassed 50 million paid subscribers in early March. Since March of 2016, the company’s paid subscriber count has increased from 30 million, according to the Verge.
Now that Spotify has clinched 60 million paid subscribers, it has well surpassed its closest rival, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), who announced in early June that it had reached 27 million paid subscribers. According to Yahoo!, Spotify “remains the fastest growing market participant” in the music streaming space.

With Spotify’s paid subscriber membership increasing at a rapid pace, rumors have been circulating that the company is preparing for a “direct listing,” which Tech Crunch describes as going public without doing an initial public offering (IPO). As the publication notes, insiders that aren’t the company will sell shares to the stock market.
In May, Reuters reported that the streaming service mammoth was valued at a whopping $13 billion and would become the first major company to carry out a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. At the time, the publication said that Spotify could go public later in 2017 or early 2018. As reported by Variety, the direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange is planned for the end of 2017.
That said, before the company goes public, Reuters reported that Spotify is getting closer to agreeing to a new licensing deal with Warner Music, a deal that’s integral before being listed. According to the publication, both companies are hoping to notch the deal before September.
Since word got out that Spotify had reached 60 million paid subscribers compared to Apple’s 27 million, shares of Apple have dipped 0.43 percent to close at $148.85 on Monday (July 31).
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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.