Spotify’s revenue is rising, but company still in red
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Spotify, the company that has come to symbolize the growth of streaming music around the world, had more than $1 billion in revenue in 2013. But it hasn’t turned a profit.
In its latest financial statements, Spotify reported that it had 747 million euros ($103 billion) in revenue in 2013. That was up about 74 percent from 2012, the privately held company said in filings made public Tuesday.
Spotify had $80 million in net losses during 2013, down from its $115 million loss in 2012. The company has said that it pays about 70 percent of its revenue to record companies and music publishers. By the end of 2013, it had 958 employees, but that number is already obsolete. Last week, Martin Lorentzon, one of Spotify’s co-founders, said at a trade conference that its head count had grown to 1,500 and would soon be “up to 2,000 people.”
The finances show how quickly streaming music has spread. Started in Sweden in 2008, Spotify came to the United States three years later and is available in 58 markets around the world. It makes millions of songs available by subscription — usually at around $10 a month — or free with advertising.
Streaming’s growth has coincided with sharp drops in sales of CDs and downloads around the world, making services such as Spotify the music industry’s biggest hope for new revenue.
More people listen to Spotify free than pay for it: Of its 36 million active users at the end of 2013, the company said, 8 million paid. (This month, Daniel Ek, Spotify’s other founder, said it had since grown to 50 million users, including 12.5 million paying subscribers.)
But subscriptions make up the vast majority of the company’s revenue. According to its statement, $897 million, or about 91 percent of its sales, came from subscriptions and $90 million from advertising. As a result, the royalty rates it pays to music companies for the free streams are substantially lower than those for the paid ones.