CAN 1.4 MILLION STATESIDE SPOTIFY USERS BE WRONG?

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Peter Kafka, Daniel Ek’s streaming music subscription service has signed up 1.4 million stateside users for its free trial.

In addition, Spotify has converted around 12.5% of those users into paying customers less than a month after it launched here. Last week, Billboard cited a source pegging that U.S. user total at “at least one million.”

Spotify itself has declined any official confirmation on the numbers, while noting the rate of joining has “exceeded expectations.” A number of issues have dogged the otherwise successful launch, including the discovery of an undelete-able cookie which Spotify has not agreed to retroactively fix.

That trails the 15% rate that Spotify has achieved in Europe. During the company’s six-month launch phase, the U.S. version of the free service gives users more music than its European counterpart. The $9.99 option allows users to use the service on iPhones and Android phones—though most notably not on Blackberry.

Spotify reports that it has 1.6 million paid subscribers in Europe. By comparison, Rhapsody, the biggest digital music subscription service in the U.S., boasted 800k paid subscribers. Sirius XM has 21 million subscribers.

Meanwhile, Rdio, a U.S.-based competitor, will continue marketing its service via Apple’s iTunes, while raising its prices from $10 to $15 a month in order to comply with Apple’s new subscription rules and fees.

Most other subscription services, including Spotify and Rhapsody, have taken down subscription links from their Apple apps, while keeping their pricing intact.