Spotify hits 40 million paying subscribers, up 10 million in 6 months

Spotify has now passed 40 million paying subscribers, if this tweet by company cofounder Daniel Ek is anything to go by.

The news comes three months after Spotify announced it had passed 100 million total users, though, at the time, the company provided no update to the 30 million paying subscribers figure it had announced back in March.

A few weeks back, however, the music-streaming giant did confirm that it was sitting on 39 million paying users, so it was only a matter of time before the magic 40 million became a reality.

Though overall user numbers are important, the number willing to pay the $10 monthly fee to ditch ads is perhaps a better reflection on the state of digital music, as it shows that people are increasingly prepared to pay for access to a near-unlimited library of tunes. Spotify has insisted on keeping its ad-supported tier to encourage people to sign up before being converted into paying subscribers, but this has incurred the wrath of key musicians and industry figures, with many claiming it doesn’t create enough value for the hard-working artists who make their music available to stream on-demand.

For context on the new milestone, Apple’s Music service recently passed 17 million subscribers, though, admittedly, it has been in existence for a much shorter period than Spotify. And it’s worth noting here that Apple doesn’t offer an ad-supported service.

For added context, Spotify passed 15 million paying users in January 2015, meaning it took around 14 months to double its paid subscribers and hit the 30 million mark. Now, it has taken just six months to add another 10 million to its tally, meaning it could potentially be at 50 million by March 2017, if current sign-up rates continue — that would represent an increase of 20 million subscribers in the space of a year.