Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Announces 30 million Paid Subscribers

[UPDATED] It's been rumored for several months that Spotify has been getting close to 30 million paid subscribers. Today, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek used U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Cuba. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2016/03/spotify-announces-that-it-has-30-million-paid-su

[UPDATED] It's been rumored for several months that Spotify has been getting close to 30 million paid subscribers. Today, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek used U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Cuba as an excuse to announce that the 30 million milestone was official.

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It's official. Spotify has 30 million paid subscribers, CEO Daniel Ek confirmed in a tweet this morning.

We have 30 million @Spotify subscribers, but none of them are in Cuba … yet. So cool to see Cuba opening up! https://t.co/nZa67f0l8U

— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) March 21, 2016

That put Spotify up 50% from 20 million paid in June of last year, just prior to the launch of Apple Music. Apple's last numbers were a recent reveal of 11 million paid, which means that the debut of Apple's much anticipated music streaming service is outpacing a mature Spotify's growth rate by just 10%.

Spotify also is has another 70 million free ad supported users. Apple Music has no free tier.