Spotify has today announced that it has over 140 million ‘active’ users in a blog post published on the company’s website.
The post claims that its free, ad-supported tier is still increasing rapidly, with revenues growing at a rate in excess of 50% year-on-year. Spotify defines ‘active users’ as those listening to at least 30 seconds of a track in the last 30 days. It later published more detailed financial figures.
The news follows Apple Music’s announcement last week it now boasts 27 million paying customers, up by seven million since December 2016. Spotify’s Premium subscriber base was thought to be around 50 million back in March of this year, although there is no update specifically on its paying user numbers in its latest post.
Brian Benedik, Spotify's VP and global head of sales, highlighted the potential for new brand partnerships to be established and subsequent growth of its ad-supported user base ahead of the Cannes Lions 2017 advertising festival.
“We’re excited to share the news that Spotify has surpassed 140 million global monthly active users,” he said. “On the eve of Cannes Lions 2017, the advertising Festival of Creativity, this is a particularly meaningful development, as our brand partners now have a bigger opportunity than ever to activate Spotify’s free user base.
"Spotify’s high-velocity audience growth cements our place as the leading media platform for music, fans and brands. As our global monthly active user number continues to climb, more consumers engage with us across their day and devices. Through this engagement, we are constantly learning about our audience through streaming intelligence – our rich, first-party data. We believe these differentiated insights create innovative experiences for our audience, personalised to their wants and need states. Spotify is leading the way in this new era of personalisation, and now we can do more than ever to connect brands with their target audiences.”
