Spotify to overtake iTunes in Europe

Spotify’s Head of European Label Relations, Kevin Brown has said the streaming service will likely surpass iTunes in Europe as the go-to market for digital music listening.

Speaking with Music Week, Brown said, “Given that download sales are declining and Spotify is growing rapidly, particularly in the UK, it is only a matter of time before Spotify is bigger than iTunes across Europe as a whole.”

Spotify accumulated more than one million active users in the UK over the past four months and with Apple’s recent overhaul of its iTunes Radio, it’s clear the company is feeling the pinch. In fact, Spotify is currently generating more revenue across Continental Europe than iTunes.

The increase could be partly due to Spotify’s bundle deals with Vodafone, The Sunday Times and Virgin Media, but after a digital tax law loophole was closed in the UK - that put an end to all song downloads being priced at £0.99 ($1.79) - iTunes is expected to lose consumers opting for subscription streaming services instead of paying for each track as a download.

Brown also said Spotify doesn’t view iTunes as its main rival. "I don’t see iTunes as our primary competitor - that’s YouTube. We’re still put in the same bucket as iTunes by some labels, whose music then appears on YouTube. That drives me nuts."

While the last figures for Spotify’s paying subscribers were released in March 2013, The Guardian has reported the service is hoping to surpass 10 million before its next announcement; which if it announces soon, will be an increase of four million global paying consumers in just over a year.