SPOTIFY PASSES 140M TOTAL USERS

We have a new tally. Spotify said in a 6/15 blog post that the two-tiered service now has north of 140m users—or “global monthly active users,” as Spotify’s Brian Benedik put it. The hyperbolic post was adorned with the celebratory image above.

What hasn’t yet been updated is the stat the rights holders care about the most: the current number of paid subscribers. The last number confirmed by Spotify was 50m in March.

But the post did contain some positive news about the ad-supported free tier, which was launched on mobile three years ago: Advertising sales revenues from 2015 to 2016 grew by 50.3% year over year. In other words, the rights holders may be getting less per stream on freemium than premium, but the volume appears to be increasing at a gratifying rate.

In other Spotify news, the company continued its longtime pattern in 2016, as revenue rose while its operating loss widened. CNBC reported the news based on Spotify’s annual financial statement revealed. Specifically, the company’s operating loss was 349m euros ($389m), compared to a loss of 236m euros ($263m) the previous year. Revenue rose to 2.93b euros ($3.27b), significantly more than its 2015 revenue of 1.93b euros ($2.15b).

With the Spotify IPO looming, these numbers will be closely scrutinized by analysts and investors.