【2013 Archives】

Despite increasing competition from Apple Music013 Archives Spotify is still seeing healthy growth.

The music-streaming service released its financial results for the first quarter of 2019 on Monday. In its report, Spotify says it now has 217 million monthly active users worldwide — 100 million of which are paid subscribers — with growth largely driven by higher sign-ons in the U.S. and Canada due to promotions.

Compared to Apple Music, Spotify now has about twice as many paid subscribers worldwide. As of early April, Apple Music claimed only 50 million paid subscribers worldwide.

In addition to the promotional offers (i.e. free Google Home Mini and a bundle that included Hulu), Spotify also grew through expansion in India.

Including India, the music streaming service now has a presence in 79 countries. In India, the company says over a 1 million users signed up in the first week and it's now got 2 million users.

While global paid subscribers for Spotify is up — 32 percent year-over-year to be exact — the service isn't doing so hot compared to Apple Music in the U.S.

In America, Apple Music has 28 million paid subscribers versus Spotify's 26 million, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal in early April.

Still, it's good to see growth hasn't completely stalled for Spotify. The company's recent investment in podcasting — it acquired Anchor and Gimlet in February — positions it for a future beyond streaming music.

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})