Didn't they have a clause in their last round of financing, that if they didn't go public in 6 months, they'd lose a lot of money (per month)?
"Investors, according to the Wall Street Journal, will be able to convert the debt into Spotify shares at a 20 percent discount if the company has a public offering in the next year, with that discount rising two and a half percent every six months Spotify doesn’t go public.
Until then, Spotify will also pay a five percent interest rate on the debt. That’s an amazing investment for those who were given the opportunity to make it — five percent on their money up front, and a huge discount on stock when Spotify goes public. Essentially, if Spotify doesn’t immediately go under, they stand to make a lot of money on their initial investment no matter what happens."
I don't understand your logic; it's not "when spotty goes public"; it's "if Spotify goes public".
If, say, Spotify doesn't go public (yet) and goes down after X years, they will have received 5X% of their investment back in interests, and will have the rights to buy lots of by then worthless Spotify shares at an enormous discount. For X < 10, I don't see that as making money at all; X = 10 might sort-of break even.
I think Spotify had to give them those share options to get that 5% interest rate because investing in Spotify is risky.
They won't dump it into the open market on opening day.