Spotify Reports 172 Million Premium Subscribers, Total Monthly Active Users Rise to 381 Million

About 40 percent of Spotify's premium subscribers are based in Europe and 29 percent in the United States.

By Reuters | Updated: 27 October 2021 17:00 IST

Spotify has also been investing heavily in its podcast business to rival that of Apple

Highlights

Total monthly active users on Spotify rose 19 percent to 381 million
About 40 percent of Spotify's premium subscribers are based in Europe
About 29 percent are based in the United States

Spotify beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as the music streaming company reported a 19 percent jump in paid subscribers for its premium service driven by demand in Europe and North America. Premium subscribers, which account for most of the company's revenue, hit 172 million, just beating analysts' expectations of 171.7 million.

Total monthly active users rose 19 percent to 381 million.

Spotify earns from subscriptions and by showing advertisments to non-paying members. Revenue from advertisements, which fell at the height of the pandemic, jumped 75 percent to EUR 323 million (roughly Rs. 2,810 crore), and the company is planning to hire hundreds of staff to further boost advertising sales.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

Total revenue rose 27 percent to EUR 2.50 billion (roughly Rs. 21,760 crore), beating the 2.45 billion expected by analysts, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

About 40 percent of Spotify's premium subscribers are based in Europe and 29 percent in the United States.

The company has also been investing heavily in its podcast business to rival that of Apple and in April launched a paid subscription platform for podcasters in the United States.

Spotify Unveils Enhance Feature to Modify Playlists With Suggested Songs

Spotify currently has 3.2 million podcasts on its platform, up from 2.9 million at the end of the second quarter.

"While we have been relentless in our pursuit of being the world's largest audio platform, it's still early days and we are just getting started," Chief Executive Daniel Ek said in a statement.

The top end of the company's current quarter forecast for revenue and premium subscribers also surpassed estimates.

Spotify forecast fourth-quarter revenue of EUR 2.54 billion (roughly Rs. 22,110 crore) - EUR 2.68 billion (roughly Rs. 23,330 crore), and 177-181 million premium subscribers. Analysts on average are expecting revenue of EUR 2.62 billion (roughly Rs. 22,810 crore) and 180 million subscribers.

The company reported a net profit of EUR 2 million (roughly Rs. 17 crore) compared with a loss of EUR 101 million (roughly Rs. 880 crore) a year earlier.

What's most interesting about Apple's new MacBook Pros, M1 Pro and M1 Max silicon, AirPods (3rd Generation), and Apple Music Voice plan? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.