Spotify hires filings expert, hints at public share offering

Spotify has sparked rumours of an initial public offering (IPO) after the Swedish music streaming service hired a US financial reporting specialist.

Speculation that Spotify is preparing for a share listing, comes after a huge rise in streaming and on-demand music popularity. While user numbers have shot up in recent years, the cost of securing royalty fees have seen streaming services struggle to make a profit.

According to the Australian Financial Review, this recent hiring is the initial step to meeting the standards of US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), mandatory procedure for any company wanting to go public.

One banker source of Reuters who read the job advertisement speculated that a share listing could value the firm at as much as $US7-8 billion. The job ad was posted on Spotify’s official website and networking tool LinkedIn; it indicated the company may go public with the IPO next year.

The source told Reuters it would be beneficial to employ a person with expertise in filing the company’s accounts to listing standards.

“They would need such a person, and to make sure that person is settled in, in order for it to be possible to list the company in the United States next year.”

A spokesperson for Spotify told TMN: “As Spotify grows and becomes a more mature company we are looking for people who can help us keep our financial reporting in order and up to global standards.”

In November last year Spotify raised $US250 million in a funding round; Business Matters Magazine dubbed the company one of the world’s most richly capitalised start-ups.

Spotify formed in 2008, has more than 1,000 staffers, headquarters in 17 countries and an active user list of more than 24 million.

The service is considered the world’s largest contributor of digital revenue for the industry (after iTunes and SoundCloud) and competes with 14-year-old platform Pandora, which boasts around 73.4 million users.