Spotify’s quarter-on-quarter growth slowed in the third quarter, putting the music streaming leader on course for a 30 percent revenue increase for 2017, according to a person familiar with the company’s finances.
That would prove the company’s lowest annual revenue increase since its commercial launch in 2008 and a significant drop from last year’s 52-percent surge to 2.9 billion euros.
Spotify, which reached 60 million paying subscribers in August, is locked in a growth battle with Apple Music, the second largest provider with over 30 million subscribers.
To fuel subscriber growth, Spotify (NTL) has launched a family plan that lets five users access the service for slightly higher subscription price. The plan has helped the company grow by nearly 2 million paying users per month while at the same time lowering its revenue intake per user.
Nasdaq have offered Spotify a dual listing in New York and Stockholm but the streaming service is set for trading on the NYSE, several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Di Digital.
Facebook’s botched IPO in Nasdaq four years ago is the primary reason that Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy, who previously held the same role at Netflix, has opted for the NYSE, they said.
Spotify’s third-quarter report to shareholders made no mention of a public listing, the person briefed on the report said. The streaming company had previously indicated to investors it aimed to go public no later than the first quarter of 2018.
The omission might suggest the listing has been pushed back, the person said.
Di Digital is the tech vertical of Dagens industri, the leading business daily in the Nordic region.
Nordictechlist.com is our English-language database covering the tech sector in the Nordi region.
