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Spotify aims for iPhone exposure

The Swedish streaming music provider Spotify has applied for its software to be made available on US giant Apple's iPhone.

In a statement on its website, the company said its iPhone application “should be available in a few weeks.”

“The demo (application) is currently under evaluation … so there is no specific launch date for it yet,” Spotify’s Annina Svensson told AFP.

“We are very confident. We have top level contacts at Apple directly and we are still talking to them,” she added.

If Spotify does become available on the iPhone, users will be able to save up to 3,000 songs to their handsets.

Music fans would then be able to listen to their favourite tunes even in areas with poor mobile internet reception.

“It would be fantastic for our users to have a real on-demand service on the iPhone that is easy to use, economic and very fast,” Svensson said.

The service, which first launched last year, is seen as a potential rival to iTunes because of its huge, free library of millions of songs.

Spotify is currently only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Britain, France and Spain.

Music fans can sign up for the company’s ad-supported free service or a premium service with no commercials that costs €9.99 euros a month.

Svensson said the planned iPhone application would only be available to Spotify’s premium customers if approved.

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BUSINESS

Spotify reports strong growth in users as it announces price rise

Spotify on Tuesday reported a bigger-than-expected rise in active users at the end of the second quarter, a day after the music streaming giant announced price increases for its premium service.

Spotify reports strong growth in users as it announces price rise

The Swedish company, which is listed on the New York stock exchange, said it’s total active users rose 27 percent to 551 million year-on-year, or 21 million more than it expected. The number of paying subscribers also rose, with a 17 percent jump to 220 million — three million more than expected.

On Monday, the company announced it was raising its prices for premium subscribers “across a number of markets around the world,” following in the footsteps of similar moves by competing music services from Apple and Amazon.

Despite the boost in users, Spotify reported a bigger operating loss of 247 million euros ($273 million) in the second quarter, compared to a loss of 194 million euros for the same period a year earlier.

The company said it was “primarily impacted by charges related to our actions to streamline operations and reduce costs.”

In early June, Spotify announced it would be cutting some 200 positions working with podcasts.

That move came after a January announcement that Spotify was cutting around 600 jobs — equalling about six percent of its workforce — following similar moves by other tech industry giants.

Spotify has invested heavily since its launch to fuel growth with expansions into new markets and, in later years, exclusive content such as
podcasts. It has invested over a billion dollars into podcasts alone.

In 2017, the company had around 3,000 staff members, more than tripling the figure to around 9,800 at the end on 2022.

The company has never posted a full-year net profit and only occasionally quarterly profits despite its success in the online music market.

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