Spotify Reaches 20 Million Paid Subscribers, Raises $526 Million From Investors

Spotify has announced they have now doubled the amount of premium subscribers in just one year -- from 10 million in May 2014, to over 20 million today. Spotify says a new premium subscriber signed up once every three seconds over the last year, on average. The service has more than 75 million active users, up from 40 million a year ago.

With more activate and paid users, artists and content creators will see larger payouts. The service has now paid over $3 billion in royalties, including more than $300 million in the first three months of 2015 alone. Spotify also just announced a slew of updates to the service the include video clips and audio shows, original content, a running feature, and more.

Investors seem to appreciate Spotify's growth, as the The Wall Street Journal reports that the company has just raised $526 million in fundraising - valuing the company at $8.53 billion. Investors do not seem to worried about Apple's latest play into the streaming service and are betting Spotify can wave off Apple Music. Spotify is now valued twice the amount of Pandora, which has a current market cap of about $3.5 billion.


Apple Music was announced Monday at WWDC for $10/month for a single user and $15/month for a family of up to six. The music service will feature a 24/7 Radio called Beats 1, Connect, and a three months trial to help lure subscribers. Apple Music will launch June 30 alongside iOS 8.4.