Spotify has secured a massive new round of funding while enjoying a boom in paid subscribers, as the music streaming service responds to a new threat from Apple.
The Sweden-based firm closed a $526 million round of funding valuing it at $8.53 billion.
CEO Daniel Ek also took to a blog post to announce that 20 million people are now paying to use Spotify, double its figures at the same time last year and a significant head start for Spotify against Apple.
Spotify now has 75 million active users in total, up 87% from the 40 million last year. It’s clear that while the service is growing overall, subscriptions appear to be holding up well despite the availability of free streaming.
Addressing criticisms of low royalty payments, Spotify is revealing today that it has now paid out more than $3 billion in royalties.
The streaming service says it has paid more than $300 million between January and March this year alone.
Apple Music will launch on June 30th priced at $9.99 a month, and it will reignite the streaming music battle once again.