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Apple ( AAPL ) Music and Pandora Media ( P ) rival Spotify could get a $500 million injection from TPG Capital, a major U.S.-based private equity firm, according to a British media report. The reported financing of Spotify comes amid continuing growth in the music-streaming sector and follows a share sale last year which valued the privately-held company — which has nearly 30 million paying subscribers — at about $8.5 billion, according to a report by Sky News late Friday. TPG Capital is discussing an investment of as much as $500 million to Spotify, which competes with Apple , Pandora, Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google and other music-streaming services, Sky News said. Sky News reported that the money could be used to fund acquisitions, with talk of a major investment in Spotify coming on the heels of another report, this time from the New York Post, saying Samsung, Spotify and Google all examined a potential takeover of music streaming service Tidal. Spotify has discussed creating an initiative that could produce a Tidal “powered by Spotify” partnership rather than an acquisition, the New York Post said on Thursday. An estimated 41 million people paid for a streaming music subscription services in 2014, according to IFPI, a London-based recording industry trade group that represents more than 1,300 record labels. TPG declined to comment on the report. Apple Music has 11 million paid subscribers, senior vice president Eddy Cue said earlier this month , up from 10 million paying customers at the beginning of the year. Apple Music began in June for Apple iOS users with three-month trial subscriptions, expanding to the Google Android operating system in November. Apple may be attracting members from its rivals, including Pandora, Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Google’s YouTube and Spotify. Apple stock slipped 0.3% in the stock market today , closing at 96.65. Pandora stock closed up 0.5% at 10.22. Image provided by Shutterstock . Scalper1 News
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