Spotify expects to reach 100 million users by the end of the year

Remember how nervous music streaming services like Spotify were when Apple Music was close to launching, how they were worried that it would completely change the industry like iTunes did? Yeah, that never happened, and it turns out there was nothing to worry about because Apple Music isn’t much of a threat, especially not to Spotify. While reports that Apple Music is struggling just to retain its existing users keep popping up, Spotify just announced that it expects to reach 100 million users by the end of the year. 

You might think Spotify would be feeling the heat from Apple’s entry into the crowded music-streaming market, but recent comments from a high-ranking Spotify executive suggest the Swedish company remains largely unaffected. In the early part of June, weeks ahead of Apple Music’s launch, Spotify announced that its subscriber base had soared to more than 20 million (twice as many as a year ago), while the overall number of users stood at a record 75 million (versus 35 million a year ago). Impressive as the growth of the previous 12 months or so had been, one couldn’t help but wonder if it would be able to withstand the mad surge in competition. The message coming out of Spotify seems to be “Ya sure, you betcha.” Spotify Chief Revenue Officer Jeff Levick told an advertising conference in New York earlier this week that the company is on course to reach the 100-million-user mark by Christmas, according to the International Business Times. He didn’t say how many of these new users are expected to pay for the service, but if historical usage claims are anything to go by we’re probably looking at an additional 6 to 7 million subscribers.