Spotify turned a profit for the first time last year

Spotify’s UK business turned a profit for the first time last year, according to the company’s latest set of financial results.

Spotify Ltd recorded an £11 million net loss in 2012, but in 2013 that became a £2.6 million net profit, with the company’s revenues climbing from £92.6m in 2012 to £131.4m last year.

The change in fortunes was attributed to 42% year-on-year growth in UK subscriptions, as well as an increase in advertising revenue.

“The growth seen by Spotify Ltd mirrors the growth of digital recorded music revenues in the UK in 2013, which saw digital revenues account for 50% of total UK record industry trade revenues for the first time, and a 41% increase in streaming revenues on the previous year,” a Spotify representative told the Guardian.

The streaming service, which was launched in 2008 by a team of Swedish developers, has not yet published its global results for the year. In 2012, Spotify’s global revenues rose 128% to €434.7m, but its net losses increased to €58.7 million, up from €45.4 million in 2011.

The explosion in streaming and Spotify’s dominance of the sector has prompted several prominent musicians to criticise its payment structures in the past year, with Thom Yorke famously denouncing the streaming service as “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse”. Spotify responded by disclosing its royalty payments, which showed that artists get an average of $0.007 per stream.

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