Spotify has set itself a rather ambitious target of generating revenues of $100 billion in the next decade, Axios reported. The company is also aiming to reach more than a billion users as well and is looking at audiobooks and podcasts to reach that goal. As the company CEO, Daniel Ek said, all of this forms part of a new strategy that is being put forth as the ‘Spotify machine’.

Elaborating further, Ek said the term Spotify machine refers to the company’s future growth plan that focuses more on “increasing the lifetime value of customers — the amount of revenue consumers drive with Spotify over the long term” rather than the “short-term engagement growth metrics.” Ek said they plan to achieve this by introducing new audio verticals every few years and backing those to make them market leaders in their own respective segments.

That is not all as the company also said they plan to get into other audio-related businesses as well but didn’t elaborate what those are likely to be. However, as Axios mentioned, live audio could be one such option, something that Spotify has been experimenting with for some time now and could be hoping to build upon in the coming days.

“There’s one dominate player in audiobooks and that’s similar to what the podcast space looked in 2018,” Ek said. “We think that by entering the market, there’s a great chance to win but also expand that market, and if that takes more acquisitions, we’re flexible to do that.”

Ek said they are looking to diversify their revenue streams that won’t just depend on subscriptions to drive growth. That includes, among others, marketplace tool that provides means for creators to connect with fans and also make money in the process. This, Ek said, will help them achieve a higher growth rate. As the chief executive said, the company’s focus on creator tools helped boost their gross margin in music to about 28.5 percent, up from 21 percent in 2017. Ek also estimated the audiobook business to be worth $70 billion in a few years’ time, up from the $10 billion it is estimated to be right now.

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