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Spotify Just Surpassed a Major Milestone Despite Lack of Profits

By
Reuters
Reuters
By
Reuters
Reuters
June 20, 2016, 9:47 AM ET
Amazon Starts Music Streaming Service Without Universal
The Amazon.com Inc. Prime Music mobile app is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5 for a photograph in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, June 12, 2014. Amazon.com Inc. introduced advertising-free music streaming with more than a million songs, ramping up competition against Apple Inc., Spotify Ltd. and Pandora Media Inc. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhotograph by David Paul Morris — Bloomberg via Getty Images

Swedish music streaming service Spotify said on Monday its user base had grown to 100 million, up from 75 million previously, as it pushed into new markets and despite competition from the likes of Apple Music.

Spotify has the music streaming industry’s biggest paid subscriber base, with 30 million users paying to listen, but the vast majority still tune in for free with commercial breaks.

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Competition is fierce with Apple Music (AAPL) launched just last year and already claiming 13 million paid users while Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL) competes with Google Music and YouTube.

Sources have told Reuters that Amazon.com (AMZN) is preparing its own standalone service.

Spotify, founded in 2006, pays more than 80% of its revenue to record labels and artists and has not yet shown a profit as it spends to grow internationally.

For more about Spotify’s business model, watch:

Last year, it made an operating loss of 184.5 million euros ($209 million), widening from 165.1 million in 2014.

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