In an age when Internet companies are struggling to make subscription-based services a success, music service Spotify has something to celebrate. The company announced this week that it now has one million paying subscribers.
"It's a testament to our fantastic users who continue to support us and spread the Spotify word, either by telling friends or sharing some of the 200 million playlists that you've put together so far," the company wrote in a blog post.
Spotify launched in October 2008 and reached 1 million users by March 2009. The service's features, however, have now prompted at least 1 million users to upgrade to Spotify's premium services.
Spotify gives users up to 20 hours of unlimited music through a free, ad-supported version and a subscription-based model. Features include the ability to: search, browse, and play millions of tracks; stream over Wi-Fi or 2.5/3G; access offline playlists; on-the-fly sync; a what's new tab; wireless sync of your local files to your phone; and the ability to tag favorites into a special list.
Spotify got an update in April, when PCMag dubbed it the best music service you can't have. That's because the service is currently only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Spotify is still negotiating with U.S. music labels for the right to offer their music to U.S. customers, though Spotify has reportedly inked a deal with Sony and is nearing a deal with Universal. Spotify has thus far declined comment on its deals with U.S. labels.
In January, Spotify teamed up with Shazam to connect Shazam users directly to music on Spotify.