Spotify hits growth spurt to 60M active users
Music-streaming service Spotify has grown substantially over the last year, new data from the company shows.By the end of 2014, Spotify had reached 15 million paid subscribers and 60 million active users worldwide, the streaming provider announced Monday. The company provided no other information on its growth.But Spotify's expansion does seem to be coming along nicely. In May, Spotify announced that it had reached 10 million paid subscribers and 40 million active users. In a span of seven months, therefore, the company had added 5 million paid subscribers and 20 million active users -- that is, its user ranks swelled by about 50 percent.In March 2013, Spotify said that it had 6 million paid subscribers, so in an earlier phase of growth it took the company over a year to add 4 million paid subscribers.Spotify is competing in a crowdedmosh pit ofmusic services, from Pandora to Google Play Music and from Amazon Music to iTunes Radio. One of the latest to enter the fray in the big US market, after establishing itself in scores of countries around the globe, is Deezer, often compared with Spotify. Deezer has formed partnerships with speaker makers Bose and Sonos, and just last week struck a deal with Cricket Wireless.A key component in Spotify's growth has been its willingness to let users stream content to mobile devices for free. Spotify's paid service costs customers $9.99 per month and allows for offline listening, no ads, and improved sound quality.Even with its growth, Spotify is still has some catching up to do. Pandora announced at the end of October that it had reached 76.5 million "active listeners." That was up nearly 4 million people compared from a year earlier.Spotify did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
