Spotify Now Has 165 Million Paid Subscribers

Spotify beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter income on Wednesday, because the music streaming firm reported a 20-percent bounce in paid subscribers for its premium service pushed by demand in Europe and North America.

Revenue rose to EUR 2.33 billion (roughly Rs. 20,460 crores) for the quarter, from EUR 2.15 billion (roughly Rs. 18,875 crores) a yr earlier. Analysts had been anticipating income of EUR 2.29 billion (roughly Rs. 20,105 crores), in response to IBES knowledge from Refinitiv.

Premium subscribers, that account for a lot of the firm’s income, hit 165 million within the quarter, matching analysts’ expectations.

Total month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs) rose 22 % to 365 million.

In its note to shareholders, Spotify stated, “Most of our major metrics – Subscriber growth, Revenue, Gross Margin, and Operating Income – performed better than expected this quarter. The exception was MAUs, where we fell short of our guidance range. The quarter was led by improving ARPU, decreased churn, a return to per user consumption growth, and significant advertising strength. We did see a second quarter of greater MAU variability mainly due to ongoing COVID-19 headwinds and a temporary issue related to user intake on a third-party platform. However, trends improved in the back half of the quarter.”

Explaining extra on the COVID-19 roadblock, the corporate added: “MAU performance was slower than expected due primarily to lighter user intake during the first half of the quarter. COVID-19 continued to weigh on our performance in several markets, and, in some instances, we paused marketing campaigns due to the severity of the pandemic. Separately, a user sign-up issue associated with a global third-party platform created unexpected intake friction, which also impacted MAU growth. This issue has since been resolved.”

“Overall, we saw a return to better growth patterns in the back half of the quarter. Although we continue to face near-term uncertainty with respect to COVID-19, we remain confident in the underlying health of our user funnel, and our existing user retention activity remains consistent with historical trends,” the corporate stated.

© Thomson Reuters 2021