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The popular streaming service Spotify has announced that it will start to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker name SPOT. The shares have traded as high as $132.50 on private markets, resulting in the company possessing a valuation of $23 billion based on ordinary shares. As of right now, Spotify is the leading streaming service provider, with millions of paid subscribers and regular users.

Despite Posting a Loss of $1.5 Billion in 2017, Spotify Has Managed to Add Paid Subscribers at 46 Percent Year-Over-Year

Spotify has reported that it hosts 71 million paid subscribers and more than 159 million monthly active listeners, according to the latest figures of December 2017. It is available in 61 countries and territories, and its biggest competitor, Apple Music features 36 million subscribers, showing a huge gap in the competition.

The company had reported revenue of $2.37 billion in 2015, $3.6 billion in 2016 and $4.99 billion in 2017, according to the latest financial figures but there is something that the company will be pleased to hear about. According to CNBC, its paid subscribers are growing at a rate of 46 percent year-over-year, while monthly active users are increasing at 29 percent year-over-year.

The company posted a loss of $1.5 billion in 2017, $1 billion of which was from a non-recurring expense due to convertible notes from a transaction with Tencent in December 2017. The current challenges that the company is facing is risk from fluctuating and unpredictable royalty rates it pays to music labels, publishers, and songwriters.

“We set out to reimagine the music industry and to provide a better way for both artists and consumers to benefit from the digital transformation of the music industry. Spotify was founded on the belief that music is universal and that streaming is a more robust and seamless access model that benefits both artists and music fans.”

News Source: SEC