Spotify Shares Soar, Company Market Cap Passes $30B

Associated Press – Spotify

Spotify’s stock price continued to climb throughout late May and early June, reaching a new high and a market cap of more than $30 billion June 8. 

The company’s initial price April 3 was $149 and the number gradually climbed until May 2, when it reached the previous high of $170. 

Analysts referenced by Music Business Worldwide attribute the rise to the new high of $171.50 to Spotify’s recent decision to offer advances to artists and their teams in exchange for direct licensing services through Spotify, even though licensing is a service traditionally associated with record labels. 

The new licensing deals do not completely cut out labels, Billboard noted, as labels still own the copyrights to their artists’ works, but Spotify is reducing the amount it pays out by bypassing the labels for licensing. 

The $30 billion market capitalization puts Spotify in the same league as companies such as Taco Bell parent Yum! Brands ($26.8 billion), garbage collection giant Waste Management ($35 billion) Nokia Corporation ($32 billion) and Twitter, which had its first trading day on the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 7, 2013, ($30 billion). For reference, Live Nation’s Market Cap was at $9.7 billion as of June 11.