Spotify’s customer base is growing, with the streaming service now boasting over 60 million paying subscribers.
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The news comes in a new report by Reuters, and follows claims back in March that the service had 50 million paying users, meaning that 10 million new customers had come to the service in just four months.
It extends Spotify’s lead over its main rival, Apple Music, who revealed back in early June that they have 27 million paying subscribers.
The news follows a report earlier in the year that indie labels could soon hide their new releases behind a paywall.
A new agreement between the streaming service and digital rights agency Merlin, who represent thousands of the world’s leading independent labels including XL, Domino and Warp, plus their associated subsidiaries, will see a ‘windowing’ option introduced. This means new albums will be available only to Spotify’s paying subscribers for the first two weeks after release.
The move is to designed to both encourage more users to pay for their Spotify subscriptions, thus generating more money for artist and label, and provide a more enticing offer to any artists out there who want to keep their music away from the service.