Rumours that Spotify has plans to go public have been circulating for some time now, with the move long-expected to occur sometime between 2017 and 2018.
While the venture didn’t happen in 2017, the streaming service company is now one step closer to launching its IPO this year. According to Axios, Spotify confidentially filed IPO documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in late December.
Bloomberg, the filing suggests that Spotify is looking to list its shares in the first quarter of the year.
However, the news comes right as Spotify faces a new $1.6 billion USD lawsuit from Wixen Music Publishing over allegedly using thousands of songs without license or compensation. Therefore, it’s currently unclear if Spotify’s plans will be hindered at all by the pending legal dispute.
As it stands, though, Spotify is valued at around $16 billion and has over 60 million paying subscribers, putting it in a strong position to go public.
