Samsung Pair-Up Lifts Spotify’s Stock

Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek announced that the company is teaming up with Samsung to provide an end-to-end integration across all devices.

“The partnership we are announcing with Samsung today is a truly cross-platform listening experience,” Ek said, according to the Financial Times.

The announcement sent Spotify’s shares as high as $188 before trimming the gains slightly to trade up 4.26 percent at $186.31.

The integration, which will include everything from smartphones and speakers to its TV sets and even internet-connected fridges, is a service that until now only Apple has offered with its Music service.

As part of the deal, Samsung customers will be provided with prompts to sign up for Spotify as they set up their new smartphone or TV. The music service will also be plugged into Bixby, Samsung’s virtual assistant, and Galaxy Home, its new smart speaker.

“With Spotify, Samsung Galaxy users will now be able to enjoy seamless music experiences across all our devices,” said DJ Koh, chief executive of Samsung’s mobile division.

The announcement comes after Spotify’s second quarter as a public company showed that it has increased its paid subscriptions by 40 percent, but it lost $458 million in revenue.

Spotify now has 83 million paid subscribers, which is an increase from its 75 million from last quarter. The streaming music service now has 180 million total users, coming in with a 5.9 percent quarter-over-quarter growth rate.

As a comparison, Apple Music has 40 million subscribers, though there are rumors it might now possibly have more in the U.S. than Spotify. Spotify says it has 31 percent of its subscribers (25 million) in North America.

Despite that good news, there are financial issues for the company, which had €1.27 billion ($1.49 billion) in revenue, up 26 percent year over year and in line with estimates. However, it missed big on earnings per share (EPS), where it saw a loss of -€2.20 compared to estimates of -€0.68. In addition, Spotify saw a net loss of €394 million and operating loss of €91 million this quarter, showing it’s still a long way from turning a profit.