Spotify CEO Daniel Ek pumps $50 mn into his music streaming platform

San Francisco: Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek is investing $50 million into his own music streaming service, saying that the “best days are ahead”.

Spotify’s stock jumped more than 3 per cent to reach $108.98 per share after the announcement came late on Friday.

“I’ve always been vocal about my strong belief in Spotify and what we are building. So I am putting that belief into action this week by investing $50M in $SPOT. I believe our best days are ahead,” Ek said in a tweet.

Admitting that he is not required to disclose these purchases because of the foreign company status, Ek said that “I thought it was important for shareholders to know”.

Last month, Spotify shares hit their lowest point ($95.22) since listing as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Swedish music streaming service Spotify last month said that its premium subscribers jumped 15 per cent (on-year) to reach 182 million in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, up from 180 million in the previous quarter, despite the Joe Rogan controversy involving Covid misinformation on his podcast.

The company said its monthly active users (MAUs) went up 19 per cent year-on-year to 422 million, up from 406 million last quarter and above its guidance by 4 million.

The growth in premium subscriber base was “slightly below our guidance”, said Spotify in a statement, after “excluding the involuntary churn of approximately 1.5 million subscribers as a result of our exit from Russia” in the wake of Ukraine invasion.

Spotify this week became the first music streaming service to be available on popular virtual gaming platform Roblox.