Spotify Stock Debuts at $165.90 USD/Share, Valued at $30 Billion USD

Despite initial reports that the company was filing for a $1 billion USD IPO, Spotify began trading on the New York Stock Exchange for nearly $30 billion USD, with stocks weighing in at $165.90 USD a piece. The company first announced its initial trading date in March.

Prior to the opening trades, experts took note of Spotify’s impressive revenues, which came in at $4.09 billion USD from 2017, up from 2016’s $2.95 billion USD. Despite the optimistically high share prices, the first trades were delayed until 12:45 EDT, halfway through the trading day — a record for a public debut’s latest opening. Furthermore, the shares aren’t for sale on the stock market; instead, Spotify organized a “direct listing,” a collection of transactions from existing shareholders offloading shares to investors. The company is aiming to recreate the market activity that occurred before Spotify went public instead of enacting a traditional IPO, thus allowing Spotify insiders to sell early.

Spotify’s direct listing process may lead to increased volatility in its early days of trading, with the fluctuations dictated by the number of people selling — the less that sell, the higher the share price will rise due to scant supply.

On the music front, the streaming service tapped The Weeknd to perform My Dear Melancholy tracks live.

And @Spotify officially opens at $165.90 (NYSE: $SPOT) pic.twitter.com/4Lnj8aqX14

— NYSE (@NYSE) April 3, 2018

People have asked me why @Spotify chose the @NYSE for this unique listing. The answer is simple: we excel at large, complex financial transactions like this. The NYSE market model allowed Spotify to confidently list their shares on the New York Stock Exchange

— Thomas Farley (@ThomasFarley) April 3, 2018