Spotify tunes in to faster growth with 8m rise in users

MUSIC streaming company Spotify reported an 8m rise in the number of subscribers to its premium streaming service yesterday as it battles Apple’s rival music streaming service for dominance.

Spotify, which has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, grew its premium subscribers from 75m to 83m in the last three months, the company said. The increase of 8m users was slightly above analyst expectations of a 7m rise in paying subscribers.

“The business is performing to the higher end of expectations,” chief financial officer Barry Mccarthy said

‘We did see some GDPR disruption across our European markets but seem to be largely past that now’

during a call with analysts. “We’re seeing faster growth in the paid business than we were expecting.”

Overall, Spotify has grown its total customer base to 180m subscribers, led by rising numbers in Latin America, according to second-quarter figures.

The company offers free music streaming services supported by advertising but 90pc of revenues come from its premium paid-for service.

However, Spotify did see a drop in revenue growth, which it said was due to the introduction of the general data protection regulation in May. The business’ second quarter revenue came in at €1.27bn (£1.13bn), up 26pc from the previous year.

“We did see some general data protection regulation (GDPR) disruption across our European markets during the second quarter but seem to be largely past that now,” the company said.

Spotify continues to face competition from Apple’s rival music streaming service Apple Music, which said in May that it has 50m paying subscribers, although that figure also included people on free trials.

In April, Spotify went public through a direct listing, which saw it list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.