Spotify is planning a direct listing of its shares ' not an IPO

Music streaming service Spotify is planning to go public this year, but a new report from The Wall Street Journal says the company isn't planning a traditional IPO.Instead, The Wall Street Journal reports that Spotify is planning a direct listing in September which wouldn't involve raising any new money.A normal IPO involves a company issuing shares of stock. But The Wall Street Journal reports that Spotify will instead simply register its shares on a public market.On Tuesday Spotify cleared a major hurdle ahead of its IPO when it signed a new deal with Universal Music Group (UMG).UMG agreed to lower its share of the payouts from each stream, but it did manage to get Spotify to agree to "windowing" ' allowing exclusivity windows for content on its platform.Spotify had resisted windowing for a long time because it didn't want to reduce the attractiveness of its free, ad-supported tier. But the deal with UMG will mean that artists can choose to make albums available on the paid tier exclusively for two weeks.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Congress just voted to allow your internet provider to sell your online history and data 'here's how to protect your privacy
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