Charles Arthur 

Spotify IPO could be on track for autumn

Music streaming business could use money raised from stock market float to solidify position. By Charles Arthur
  
  

The Spotify logo: is a float in store?
The Spotify logo: is a float in store? Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters Photograph: DADO RUVIC/REUTERS

Spotify is making plans which could see it float on the stock market this autumn, it is reported.

The international music streaming company, based in Sweden, launched in October 2008 and partly owned by the major record labels. But following its expansion into the US it is now believed to be eyeing the potential to raise substantially more cash with which it could solidify its position.

Quartz reports that the company has been talking to investment banks, a standard prelude to an IPO. Spotify already has a $200m credit line from lenders including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, any of which could take the lead role in floating it on the stock market - and earn millions in fees.

An FT report earlier this month said that Spotify had secured a new $200m line of credit from Morgan Stanley, amongst others, a move that usually indicates an imminent IPO.

Spotify says it has about six million paying subscribers, including more than one million in the US, among more than 24 million users worldwide.

About 85% of Spotify's revenues come from subscriptions, and 15% from advertising - almost exactly the opposite of its other publicly listed rival, the US-based Pandora, set up in 2000, which gets just 12% of its revenue from subscriptions.

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