Earlier this year, we reported that Spotify filed paperwork to go public. Now, it’s official.
Yesterday, the world’s largest music streaming service filed for a direct listing IPO, enabling their shares to hit the open market sooner than a conventional IPO.
According to Spotify, shares traded as high as $132.50 on private markets, which would give the company a valuation of more than $23B.
Finally some numbers
Until now, the company has been somewhat vague when disclosing their financials, but according to the filing, the company posted almost $5B in revenue last year.
As of last December, Spotify recorded 159m monthly active users and a whopping 71m paid premium subscribers, bringing in 46% more than the year prior. Their closest competitor, Apple, is far behind in the race, with 36m subscribers.
Spotify also lost a lot in 2017
As good as their 2017 was, they also recorded losses of $1.5B, mostly because of a non-recurring transaction expense with Tencent.
Turning a profit has been a sore subject with the company in the past, as most of their revenue is committed to paying licensing fees and ever-fluctuating royalty rates to music labels, publishers, and songwriters.
They have reportedly paid more than $9.7B in such royalties since their launch in 2006.