Spotify has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange.
According to Bloomberg and Axios, the streaming giant filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December with a view to going public in early 2018.
With 60 million paying customers and additional advertising revenue, Spotify are not thought to be looking to raise capital, but are instead attempting a unique trading system known as ‘direct listing’.
As opposed to a traditional IPO, direct listing allows private stakeholders to buy shares only through an open market, avoiding underwriters’ fees and stock sales restrictions.
Spotify is valued at approximately $15 billion, and would therefore be the largest company to attempt a direct listing, and the first to do so on the New York Stock Exchange.
Yesterday, Spotify was hit with a $1.6 billion lawsuit.
Wixen Music Publishing has accused the site of using music by several of the artists who they represent without a license and compensation.
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has also expressed criticism of Spotify in the past, describing it as “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse.”