Spotify Lost $26.5 Million In 2009. What Does That Say About It’s Future?

(Updated) Music Ally and others have jumped on figures published by Spotify that show a ’09 loss of $26.5 million. TechCrunch Europe declared that the numbers show that U.S. expansion is now “imperative”. But year old figures for a startup don’t begin to tell Spotify’s story or provide a prediction of it’s future.

Not only did Spotify get substantial funding earlier this year, but according to the latest official Spotify numbers from October, the music service now has 10 million or more registered users. That’s a big audience to deliver ads to as the economy turns. More importantly, as of June, Spotify said it has over 500,000 subscribers across Europe. Both numbers show huge growth.

Converting 500K out of 10M from free to paid is only marginally impressive.  But the real future of Spotify stems from its addictive nature. The more people use it and build playlists, the more they get hooked. As invesotr Sean Parker said recently, “we’ve got you by the balls.”