Spotify hits landmark 30 million subscribers

Sweden’s Spotify has hit 30 million paying subscribers, according to its CEO Daniel Ek, continuing its reign as the world’s biggest music streaming service.

Privately held Spotify doesn’t regularly release its figures. But in this case, the claim was made in a tweet by 33-year-old Ek as he made a positive comment about President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba. "We have 30 million Spotify subscribers, but none of them are in Cuba ... yet. So cool to see Cuba opening up!"

Spotify’s last official update was in June 2015 when it said it had 20 million paying subscribers out of over 75 million regular users. This was the same month that Apple Music launched. Considering that Spotify has grown by 10 million since then, and that Apple Music has 11 million since, the race between them is close. Spotify had 10 million subscribers in 2014, so new rivals haven’t robbed it of its impetus.

In contrast, Deezer has 6 million mostly in Europe, Napster/Rhapsody has 3.5 million and Tidal announced last September it had 1 million but has provided no updates since.

Spotify, which is estimated to be worth US$8 billion, is available in 58 countries. It launches on March 30 in Indonesia.