Stockholm's Spotify says sales may top $889 mln in 2012

Digital music streaming service Spotify may see revenues top 6 billion Swedish crowns ($889 million) this year as it pushes ahead with its rapid expansion on both sides of the Atlantic, founder Daniel Ek said in a newspaper interview on Friday.

Ek told business daily Dagens Industri that figures put forward by the paper showing the unlisted Swedish start-up's sales grew 160 percent to 1.69 billion crowns last year while it accumulated a net loss of 402 million sounded "reasonable".

"It is not unlikely that we already this year will have a turnover of more than 6 billion crowns," he added.Spotify has more than 10 million active users and over 3 million paying subscribers for its on-demand service, which offers unlimited streaming for free to those prepared to tolerate ads, or a premium rate of $10 a month.

The European start-up, which is backed by digital entrepreneur and Facebook founding president Sean Parker, has grown fast in recent months since launching in the United States and sealing a partnership with Facebook.

Ek, who together with co-founder Martin Lorentzon and company staff owns a majority of Spotify shares, told the paper he was not worried about the company's mounting losses.

"Our focus is all on growth. That is priority one, two, three, four and five. But of course we expect to make a profit in the long run," he was quoted as saying.

Spotify has raised capital from outside investors several times since it set up shop in 2006 and there have been recent media reports it was looking to secure another capital boost of around $200 million, valuing Spotify at about $4 billion.

"At those levels we would definitely be interesting in talking," he was quoted as saying.

Read the full article at Reuters.