SEATTLE (Hypebot) –
The hope of most free and ad supported music services is that a percentage of customers will be willing to pay for a premium version. Spotify offered a glimpse inside the reality of these hopes last week when founder Daniel Ek admitted that not more than 90,000 of their more than 1 million UK subscribers had chosen to upgrade to their premium service.
Spotify charges £10 a month for their ad-free Premium option. But £900,000 a month plus ad revenue is apparently not enough to make the service profitable given the deals Spotify has with the labels. New mobile apps could help increase subscriptions, but Ek did tell a UK audience that the company could be profitable if it "chose to be". For now, however, he's focused on developing the business.
