Spotify is finally ready to go public.

The streaming music giant filed a confidential registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late December, with the intention of listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in the first quarter of this year, according to two people briefed on the company’s plans who were not authorized to discuss them.

As expected, Spotify will pursue a direct listing of its shares, an unusual process in which no new stock is issued — and therefore no money is raised — but existing investors and insiders can trade their shares on the open market. Such a listing would bypass much of the bureaucracy of a standard initial public offering, saving the company time and potentially millions in underwriting fees.

The move, if it goes forward as planned, would be the most prominent music-related listing since Pandora Media’s initial public offering in 2011, and would recognize Spotify, which began its service 10 years ago, as a transformative force in the music industry. After some 15 years of decline, revenues of recorded music sales began to recover in 2015, largely thanks to streaming.

Spotify’s registration was previously reported by Axios.

A Spotify spokesman declined to comment.

When it last raised money from investors, in 2015, Spotify was valued at $8.5 billion. Its current valuation is not clear. According to reports, it has been valued at as much as $19 billion, based on private transactions.