30 million is an operational word for Spotify at the moment. On Friday they just agreed to a $30 million settlement with NMPA over unpaid royalties and today Spotify CEO Daniel Ek announced on Twitter that the streaming service had eclipsed the 30 million paid subscribers mark.
We have 30 million @Spotify subscribers, but none of them are in Cuba ... yet. So cool to see Cuba opening up! https://t.co/nZa67f0l8U
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) March 21, 2016
This is the first time we have been given an update on the Spotify paid subscriber growth since last June right before Apple Music launched. At that time they said they had 20 million subscribers and this number shows that the increased competition hasn't negatively impacted Spotify's ability to convert free users to paying users.
It is still facing competition from other services like Apple Music, Deezer and TIDAL. At the end of 2015, Apple Music claimed to have raised 11 million paid subscribers to its service which only allows users into through the pay wall or through a three-month trial version. A lot of the current users stayed on through their free trails and became paying subscribers.
Pandora, with its purchase of Rdio, is looking to incorporate its technology into its own interface and roll out an on-demand streaming option.
TIDAL claims to have over 1 million subscribers, though TIDAL keeps its numbers very close to the vest, it doesn't even make play counts public, so it is hard to tell.
Spotify's freemium option makes it easier to attract new users who want to try out the service, but has been controversial of late with artists slamming it for lower payouts on the free streams. The more it converts to paying subscribers, the more artists will get paid, which is better for everyone.
