The hope of most free and ad supported music services is that a percentage of customers will be willing to pay for a premium version. Spotify offered a glimpse inside the reality of th
ese hopes last week when founder Daniel Ek admitted that not more than 90,000 of their more than 1 million UK subscribers had chosen to upgrade to their premium service.
Spotify charges £10 a month for their ad-free Premium option. But £900,000 a month plus ad revenue s is apparently not enough to make the service profitable given the deals Spotify has with the labels. New mobile apps could help increase subscriptions, but Ek did tell a UK audience that the company could be profitable if it "chose to be". For now, however, he's focused on developing the business.
