Spotify is up next on our list of the best music streaming service right now. It is one of the pioneers of music streaming and as of September 2016 it has around 40 million paying subscribers, compared to 30 million in March 2016. A fast growth in the number of users allowed Spotify to almost double its revenue to $2.2 billion in 2015, however the company is far from reaching profitability due to high royalties to the music industry. According to Bloomberg, Spotify’s commissions to the music industry amounted to $1.80 billion in 2015, but the company is negotiating a lower cut of the sales to be paid to labels, which currently take away around 55% of the company’s sales. The company, which is currently valued at around $8.0 billion is planning an IPO later this year, but due to its lack of profitability and uncertainty around negotiations with labels, the expectations from investors are not very high. Nevertheless, Spotify remains one of the most popular streaming services in the world. According to the same Edison Research study, 52% of respondents showed awareness of the brand, while the percentage of people that had listened to the service was at 13%, which is one percentage point above Apple Music.
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