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Spotify launches iPhone app

Swedish music streaming service Spotify announced the launch of the Spotify App for iPhone and iPod touch at the Apple iTunes App Store on Monday.

Available to Spotify Premium members in the UK, Sweden, Spain, France, Norway and Finland, the Spotify App allows subscribers to enjoy the music service, previously available only on desktop computers, on their mobile devices.

“The launch of the Spotify App for iPhone and iPod touch now provides our users with the best of both the online and offline worlds, making it even easier for users to listen to all the world’s music, anywhere on the planet,” Gustav Söderström, director of portable solutions at Spotify, said in a statement.

At the end of August, Apple approved Spotify’s iPhone application, much to the delight of the Swedish company. It was widely anticipated that Apple would reject the petition, as the service has been considered a major threat to Apple’s market-leading iTunes store.

The Spotify app allows subscribers access to millions of tracks in the Spotify catalogue. They can also search and stream music instantly, as well as create and synchronise playlists, which can also be downloaded and played in offline mode when users have no Internet connection.

While the application is free, users will have to sign up for a premium Spotify subscription, which costs 99 kronor ($14) per month.

Spotify, which was launched last year, has more than one million Swedish users, and 4.5 million users across Europe, the company’s communications manager Jim Butcher previously told The Local.

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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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