Spotify launched just over a year ago in the United States (July 14, 2011) and during that time has garnered more than three million U.S. users, with roughly 20% of them paying subscribers. While not everyone is loving the service, and with plenty of content owners still not entirely satisfied with their end of the deal, Spotify has shared some revealing numbers of their United States users and their activity.
The high amount of Facebook shares is undoubtedly due to Spotify’s deep integration within the social network, not to mention the fact that Spotify required new users to sign up with their Facebook accounts last September. The inforgraphic also says that U.S. Spotify users have spent more than 23.7 million hours using the new apps in its desktop client.
While consumers are seemingly winning with the service, what about the artists?
In another infographic we posted last week, Ditto Music shows that Spotify pays $0.0051 per free stream in the United States, $0.0078 per unlimited stream, and $0.0153 per premium stream (based on 2011 payouts). In relation to a standard $0.99 download on iTunes, it would take roughly 47 premium plays on Spotify to equate to the same amount of revenue earned from a $0.71 payout for a single $0.99 iTunes download.
While the debate of who’s actually “winning” with Spotify may not be resolved anytime soon, the Swedish streaming giant now claims a catalog of more than 18 million tracks and an active userbase of 20 million around the world, with three million paying users. Spotify has reportedly raised nearly $188 million in funding so far, and is said to be seeking a new round that could bring its value up to $3.5 billion.
See Spotify's one-year United States infographic below:
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Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House, LLC and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud
