SAN FRANCISCO — Spotify helped popularize streaming music when downloading, or pirating, songs was mainstream. Now, the service may be veering away from the mainstream in going public.
The company is leaning toward a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange possibly late this year, people briefed on the matter said on Friday. Such a listing would bypass the traditional initial public offering process that virtually every other company uses to begin trading on the markets.
Direct listings essentially move trading in a company’s stock from private markets to public ones, with new investors buying shares on the open market. Instead of a prospectus many weeks before the market debut, the company files a registration statement soon before a direct listing.
It is an exceedingly rare move. But Spotify is betting that its strong name recognition would help make a drawn-out and costly initial offering process unnecessary.
Should Spotify list directly, it probably would do so at a valuation of about $13 billion, one of the people who had been briefed said.
Spotify has already hired the investment banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Allen & Company to help weigh its options, which could still include pursuing an initial offering, the people said.
A spokeswoman for the company confirmed the hiring of the banks as advisers, but declined to comment on its plans, which were reported earlier by CNBC.
By eschewing an I.P.O., Spotify would signal that it is not going public to raise additional money. It has already raised more…