Spotify, the popular music service and Apple Music’s biggest competitor quietly filed for its IPO with the SEC early last month. Now, the filing has gone public.
Reported by CNBC, Spotify will be trading under the ticker SPOT. The company is still reporting 71 million paid users with Apple Music at an estimated 36 million. Spotify also says that is has 159 million active monthly users.
The filing shows that Spotify is seeking to raise $1 billion in funding through the IPO. Notably, the company has chosen to file for a direct listing.
As for recent financial performance, the service has been growing its revenue, but that has been accompanied by bigger and bigger losses over the last three years. From the filing:
For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016, and 2017, we generated €1,940 million, €2,952 million, and €4,090 million in revenue, respectively, representing a CAGR of 45%. For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016, and 2017, we incurred net losses of €230 million, €539 million, and €1,235 million, respectively.
Jimmy Iovine said back in November how difficult the music streaming business is. He also said that Spotify isn’t making money, and it sure isn’t.
Spotify may be looking for better profit margins with an upcoming smart speaker. Although it will be quite late to the market, it does have a massive user base.
While most Spotify users will be inclined to pass on Apple’s HomePod, Spotify will more directly compete with Amazon’s Echo lineup and Google Home smart speakers if and when it brings a product to market.
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