That year, Spotify controlled 44 percent of the overall subscriber share.īut while Spotify is undoubtedly the driving force of a turnaround in the music industry, the service has not posted a profit since it launched. They all aim to win a slice of the music streaming market, which grew by 60.4 percent in 2016 according to the annual report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Nonetheless, many competitors have since emerged, including Apple Music, Amazon or the local players such as Deezer or Saavn, which focuses on Hindi Music. Spotify says it currently has 159 million monthly users, including 71 million paying subscribers. Its value is estimated to be as much as 19 billion euros ($23.4 billion). Spotify's popularity marked the music industry's shift from physical to digital, to embracing the internet rather than fighting it, with the platform has helped to spread the medium of streaming services in many parts of the world. Daniel Ek, one of Spotify's co-founders Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Spotify was established in 2006 by Ek and Martin Lorentzon, two Swedish entrepreneurs who have since become billionaires. It was centered around the idea of a legal platform to distribute music online at a time when illegal file sharing sites dominated this market segment. He says the video streaming service has created a hugely successful subscription-driven franchise with 'spectacular returns for the company's investors.' 'One of the big questions about Spotify is whether they can take it to the next level like Netflix has,' said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager for Synovus Trust. Read more: Spotify: Market unicorn prepares to go publicĪnalysts expect Spotify's first day on the NYSE to be volatile due to uncertainty as to whether the company - which has lost more than 2.4 billion euros ($3 billion) since it started - will be the next corporate chart-topper.

'Spotify is not raising capital, and our shareholders and employees have been free to buy and sell our stock for years.The move doesn't change who we are, what we are about, or how we operate,' he wrote in the blog post.

As the company's CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek explained on his blog a day earlier, Spotify seeks to put itself 'on a bigger stage' by listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Eleven years after it was founded, Spotify finally goes public on April 3.

Spotify co founder