Hot on the heels of Apple's announced purchase of Beats Electronics, on May 21st 2014, Spotify announced that it had reached 40 million users and 10 million paid subscribers. This marks a 66% increase of both paid customers as well as over all users.
Spotify was created in Sweden in 2008 as a streaming alternative to illegal downloads. Since then the company has become very popular. It made it's debut in the U S in 2011 and has been increasing in popularity here as well.
As download sales continue to slump, the streaming wars appear to be only just beginning. While clearly Spotify is the industry's current front runner, there is still room for growth. In my opinion, the question is, is whether or not this means that streaming will become more important to music consumers than purchasing and owning their own copy of a song or album.
What may actually be happening is an increase in smartphone and tablet usages, which may include a bundling of services. In some cases, such bundling may give hand held users access to apps like Spotify. Trying the free service may cause user to subscribe to the paid service.
If this line of thinking is correct at all, it may well mean that streaming will at some point reach a peak before it too begins to level off. As more of the population adapts hand held devices, they will no longer be viewed as trendy. It's at that point that users may once again become more diversified in their listening habits.
Meanwhile, speculation continues as to what Apple will do with Beats Music Service. Some bloggers have suggested that the electronics division is Apple's sole reason for the purchase. Others believe that Beats Music will become a ready made paid subscription version of iTunes Radio. Both reasons sound highly likely. With Spotify's latest announcement, I think that the latter is a very good idea.
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