Spotify to report revenue of EUR 59 million for 2010 - study

Digital music service Spotify will report revenue of about EUR 59 million for 2010, almost five times its 2009 revenue, according to a study by Analysys Mason. Spotify's latest data release implies that about 9 percent of Spotify's subscribers now pay for music, up from just 3.6 percent at the end of 2009. The researcher said they believe that mobility has been the key to driving take-up of premium upgrades within Spotify's 'freemium' revenue model. The most significant inflection point in the take-up of Spotify's premium services was the introduction of support for iOS and Android-based handsets in September 2009. Other freemium players offer mobile versions of their services, including the business social network LinkedIn and the note-taking service Evernote, but many of these do not reserve mobile solely for the paid-for service. To date, LinkedIn has managed to convert about 1 percent of its users to its premium service, while Evernote's conversion rate has reached about 3 percent. Spotify only offers mobility with its full-priced premium service, which differentiates it from the advertising-supported and lower-priced variants.