Spotify reveals user numbers after Apple Music launch as TeliaSonera funding pushes valuation to $8bn
Spotify has revealed the number of users it has, just days after the launch of a rival music streaming service by Apple dubbed a "Spotify killer".
The service which made music streaming popular now counts 75m active users – growth of 88 per cent since May last year – while the number of subscribers has doubled to 20m in the same time.
Active users are the total number of people who use the service for free but with ads, while subscribers pay a monthly fee for ad-free music and other features.
In an update today, Spotify said it has now paid out more than $3bn in royalties to the artists, more than $300m of which was in the three months of the year.
Music superstar Taylor Swift won't be getting a share of that any more after famously pulling her music from the platform last year.
Here's how growing subscribers has upped its royalty payouts.
The Swedish-founded company has also just closed a new round of funding that values it at more than $8bn, as it takes on the might of Apple in the music stakes.
The mobile operator TeliaSonera confirmed a $115m equity investment in the company for a 1.4 per cent stake but a host of other investment firms are also understood to have invested in the Series G round.
Spotify founder Daniel Ek, who tweeted "Oh ok." during Apple's Music launch at WWDC this week, said: “We have a long and great relationship with TeliaSonera and I'm pleased we're able to take this to the next level together with this strategic partnership."