Spotify tops 70m subs; boosts Vivendi
January 9, 2018
By Chris Forrester
Music Business Worldwide (MBW) is reporting that music streaming service has added some 20 million paying subscribers since March last year. MBW says Spotify now counts 70 million subscribers.
Equity analysts at investment bank Exane/BNPP say this is clearly good news for Spotify, but also helps Vivendi-backed Universal Music Group (UMG). “Spotify is the largest growth driver for the streaming music industry, gaining further scale will continue to support UMG’s growth profile. We think that Vivendi’s UMG should enjoy a solid (+7 per cent) Q4 and have its best year in 20 years, with organic growth at +10 per cent (a year ago our forecast expected about.6 per cent).”
The bank says: “Music was one of the key value gaps we have identified [for UMG] and expect them to be the European winner of the streaming revolution. Consumers are as keen on Music streaming as they are on Video streaming and spend an impressive amount of time using the service. Yet penetration is still lagging Video. We see strong mid-term growth and raise 2018-2020 music organic growth from c6 per cent to c8.5 per cent.”