Cofounder and CEO Daniel Ek has maintained that the ad-supported version of the service has allowed the company to attract new users and then convince them to upgrade to a paid plan. Spotify has garnered criticism for its ad-supported tier - which rival Apple doesn’t offer - as it purportedly devalues artists’ music by simply giving it away for free. While hitting the magic 200 million MAU milestone will arguably be the bigger headline-grabber (if it happens), the numbers also indicate that Spotify’s paid subscription base is edging ever closer to even, at more than 46 percent. This is roughly consistent with its previous trajectory, which shows that Spotify gains 10 million new paid members every five to six months. By the end of this year, Spotify projects that it will have between 198 million and 208 million MAUs, of which 92 million to 96 million are paying. In effect, 44 percent of its users are now on a paid plan. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month, Spotify revealed that it had 159 million monthly average users (MAUs) as of December 31, 2017, of which 71 million subscribe to a $10 monthly ad-free plan. That’s a huge increase on the 25 percent figure from early 2015.

Those dates are a little out of kilter, but it’s safe to say, through a little creative guesstimation, that Spotify’s paid user base represented something like 39-40 percent of its overall user base. Last June, Spotify revealed that it had 140 million monthly users overall, and six weeks later it announced that it had 60 million paying subscribers. And this was clear from its latest guidance, where it outlined some projections for its Q1 numbers, as well as for the full year of 2018.ĭigging into these estimations reveals at least one interesting insight into how the company’s ratio of paid to free users is nearing parity.

We already knew Spotify was trying to guide public attention to its platform growth rather than profits as it looks to outmaneuver rivals such as Apple and Google.

Spotify free vs premium 2017