Company also brings in $526 / €465 million in funding

Jun 10, 2015 13:10 GMT  ·  By

June 10 is a good day to be a Spotify fan, the company recently announcing it hit the 20 million mark when it comes to paying customers, and also has over 55 million members using its service for free.

Spotify doubled its paying customers number from last year when it only had about 10 million, and now has almost three times as many paying customers than any other music streaming service on the market.

With over $3 / €2.66 billion paid in royalties to artists, the company seems to be on a good track, just a month after announcing it finally managed to increase its revenue.

Unfortunately, operating costs also mounted, which doesn't bode well in the wake of a head-to-head duel with Apple's recently announced music streaming service.

New funding round brings in $526 / €465 million as well

To prepare for this upcoming battle, Spotify also closed a new round of funding, bringing in an extra $526 / €465 million from different investors.

This will surely help it take on Apple's almost unlimited funds, allowing it a larger wiggle room when it comes to riskier decisions it may need to take to keep up with Apple's offerings.

But don't think investors are just throwing dollars away on a gamble with Spotify, putting money in the market's predicted number #2 company, this still qualifying as a very business-savvy decision on their part.

To list just a few of the companies that have contributed to Spotify's new funding round, we mention Abu Dhabi’s Sovereign-Wealth Fund, Goldman Sachs, Halcyon Asset Management, Senvest Capital, GSV Capital, Discovery Capital Management, D.E. Shaw, TeliaSonera AB, Northzone, P. Schoenfeld Asset, and Rinkelberg Capital.

These are companies from all around the world, not just the US, and this moves the needle for Spotify at an $8.5 / €7.5 billion valuation, twice as Pandora's $3.5 / €3.1 billion value.