Spotify tunes in to $4bn valuation Spotify has raised about $250m in new financing from an early backer of Netflix, in a deal valuing the Swedish digital music service at more than $4bn. The investment makes Spotify the latest private technology company to notch up a multibillion-dollar valuation this month, with Dropbox, Box and Snapchat all discussing deals at fast-rising valuations, following Twitter's successful stock market debut. According to sources familiar with the deal, Technology Crossover Ventures led Spotify's latest financing, which follows a $100m investment led by Goldman Sachs at a $3bn valuation a year ago. Since then Spotify has increased its active users from 15m to more than 24m, a figure last updated in the spring. It now has in excess of 6m paying subscribers. Spotify and TCV, based in Palo Alto, California, declined to comment. Jay Hoag, founding general partner at TCV, led the firm's early investments in Facebook and in Netflix, when the digital video brand was a DVD rental service. Spotify's subscription-based music streaming service is similar to Netflix's video service, as both involve licensing and aggregating content for redistribution. As well as being a private investor for several years, TCV backed the $200m debt component of Netflix's $400m capital raising two years ago. Facebook's links to Spotify include Sean Parker, the social network's founding president who later invested in the music service through Founders Fund; and Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, who is a friend of Daniel Ek, Spotify's co-founder and chief. Spotify charges $10, €10 or £10 per month for unlimited access to its library of more than 20m songs, which can be listened to through mobile devices. A free version includes advertising and can only be used on PCs. Its competitors include Deezer and Daisy, a forthcoming music service from the backers of headphones maker Beats by Dr Dre. Pandora and Apple's iTunes Radio also offer personalised internet radio services similar to Spotify's, alongside its main "jukebox" product. Although music streaming services have been credited with a decline in online piracy, the fees paid out to record labels and publishers - totalling more than $500m at Spotify since its launch - have made it tough for digital music providers to balance the books. According to its most recently available accounts Spotify doubled its revenues to €434.7m in 2012 but losses widened to €58.7m. In an interview with the FT in September, Mr Ek played down expectations of an imminent initial public offering. Public markets are "too much geared for quarterly capitalism," he said, and remaining private is better "in pretty much every regard." Nonetheless, Twitter's blockbuster IPO earlier this month has coincided with a surge of new interest from public and private investors in internet companies, even though many - such as Twitter and Spotify - remain lossmaking.