Spotify prepares to go public with licensing deal with Warner Music
Spotify has secured the last deal that it needed to be able to tell investors that it is ready for a non-traditional public offering - a renewal of a licensing agreement with Warner Music Group.
Instead of the usual IPO, Spotify will instead sell shares directly to the public, skipping out the Wall Street banks completely.
"It's taken us a while to get to this point, but it's been worth it," commented Ole Obermann, Chief Digital Officer at WMG, on Warner's Instagram account.
"Together with Spotify, we've found new ways to reinforce the value of music and there's so much more potential for music subscriptions."
RELATED STORIES
The deal means that the music streaming service has now secured agreements with all three of the major music labels, which will ensure that they have a grip on costs for the coming years.
With rival Apple Music trailing behind in terms of subscriber numbers, Spotify can be confident that they will continue to outpace the newer streaming service.
As of June, Spotify boasted 60 million subscribers, compared with Apple Music's 27 million.
Of that 60 million, around 20 million paid users were added in the past year - and their growth rate continues to eclipse Apple's with around 7 million new subscriptions added every three months, whilst Apple adds about 4 million.
