Spotify to more than double its New York engineer workforce
The music-streaming service and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announce the expansion together, which will include a new headquarters and 130 new jobs.
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Ken Parks, Spotify's head of content, said he sat alone in the company's New York office after he took the keys three years ago. With just 20 workers in New York when the office opened, the company now plans to have 200 engineers in the city. Spotify has a total U.S. workforce of about 220.
To celebrate the occasion, the mayor's office opened a Spotify account and created a playlist of New York-related songs, which played before and after the conference.
The new jobs will touch on all the company's initiatives, including social, mobile, radio, and music discovery, according to Jeff Levick, Spotify's head of sales marketing and international growth. He added that the new location will have area for its artist partners.
Spotify has been growing rapidly. In March, Spotify said it signed another 1 million subscribers since December, bringing the total to 6 million. That makes it the second-largest digital music service behind Pandora, which is the Web's fast growing one.
With an Internet radio service in 28 countries, it's quickly adding territories as well as subscribers.
But technology giants are throwing more of their weight behind streaming music. Google rolled out a Spotify-like subscription service in May that's part of Google Play. It's also working on a music service connected to YouTube. Apple this month unveiled iTunes Radio, its long-awaited free, streaming radio service.
Update, 2:25 p.m. PT: Clarifies that Spotify plans to hire engineers.