Big news in a tiny package.
Spotify has reached another subscriber milestone: CEO Daniel Ek tweeted this morning that the streaming platform has 30 million paying subscribers. The last time the company disclosed numbers, it was at 20 million paid subs in June 2015. The market-leading global music service added 10-million paying customers, growing its subscriber footprint by 50%, in nine months.
The remarkable growth is the more impressive for happening with Apple Music’s launch and rapid growth as a backdrop.
Competition doesn’t end there. Both Apple Music and Tidal continue to score exclusive releases that either arrive late to Spotify or remain gated indefinitely. And Pandora is marshalling resources from its Rdio acquisition of Rdio, and will release its own on-demand streaming platform late this year, putting the two best-known webcasters head-to-head. Finally there is YouTube Music, launched in the fall, which casts a glowering cloud over all the independent music services.
In response to the on-demand space becoming more crowded, Spotify added new content in podcasts and video last month. This broader scope to the streaming company is an effort to position itself as a more comprehensive entertainment platform. Spotify has also enjoyed accolades for its Discover Weekly feature, a personalized playlist that effectively broadens music discovery for many users.
The subscriber growth is probably paralleled by a corresponding rise in total monthly audience. The last firm number released by Spotify was 75-million monthly listeners to its combined services — Spotify Free and Spotify Premium. Company spokespeople have not immediately replied to our query.