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Spotify crosses 75 million subscribers

The streaming-music service says it added 4 million paying members in the last three months.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
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Joan E. Solsman
2 min read
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek

Joan Solsman/CNET

Spotify added 4 million subscribers since the end of last year to cross the 75 million milestone, the company reported Wednesday in its first earnings statement since it went public last month. 

The result was close to what Spotify had predicted just a week before the close of the period, when it had set guidance at 73 million to 76 million members. Spotify added that 170 million people use its service at least once a month. 

Its next biggest competitor, Apple Music, said last month it had reached 38 million subscribers, up by 2 million in a little more than one month.

As the world's biggest subscription music service by members, Spotify has been a major force in a larger cultural shift in music. After decades of buying music outright -- be it records, tapes, CDs or digital downloads -- the explosive popularity of services like Spotify and Apple Music mean people are increasingly paying flat fees for all-you-can-access tunes. 

Looking ahead, Spotify predicted that it would add 4 million to 8 million more paid subscribers by the middle of the year and that its monthly active users would increase 5 million to 10 million. 

In the latest period, Spotify reported a loss of 169 million euros ($202 million), or 1.01 euros a share, narrowing from a loss of 173 million euros, or 1.15 euros a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 26 percent to 1.139 billion euros.

Shares were down 7.5 percent at $157.28 after hours. 

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