Spotify Now Has 124 Million Subscribers

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Spotify today reported its earnings for Q4 2019, along with some other new stats. The company reported total revenue of €1.9 billion for the fourth quarter of 2019, which is up slightly from the last quarter.

Spotify’s total revenue has seen a 24% growth year-over-year, but the company posted an operating loss of €77 million in the last quarter.

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The music streaming service also reported that it now has 124 million subscribers worldwide, growing 29% year-over-year from the 96 million it had back in 2018. The company said that its retention rate has improved in all of its top 20 markets, with monthly active users growing 31% year-over-year to 271 million. Amazon Music, on the other hand, has 55 million active users. The last time Apple reported Apple Music subscriber figures was back in June 2019, and the service had 60 million subscribers at the time.

Spotify has also been investing quite a lot into its Podcasts business, so the company is obviously highlighting the growth in that area, too. According to Spotify, podcast consumption hours has grown 200% year-over-year, which makes a lot of sense considering the fact that Spotify introduced a new interface that puts a lot of focus on podcasts.

The company also said that more than 60 million users engaged with its first-ever “My Decade Wrapped” experience, and its Year + Decade Top Songs playlists had more than 6.5 billion streams worldwide.

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Conversation 19 comments

  • BrianEricFord

    05 February, 2020 - 1:16 pm

    <p>Hard to argue Apple is a monopoly and also brag about subscriber growth but somehow they manage.</p>

    • Andi

      05 February, 2020 - 5:25 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#518401">In reply to BrianEricFord:</a></em></blockquote><p>Spotify's global success has nothing to do with Apple's monopolistic bullshit. Apple is using its platform control to harm all competition including Spotify to lift its 2nd rate services. In the US Apple controls 70% of the mobile economy revenue and almost half of the market by users. That's monopoly power.</p>

      • lvthunder

        Premium Member
        05 February, 2020 - 6:36 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#518481">In reply to Andi:</a></em></blockquote><p>You need to look up the word monopoly in the dictionary. Half or even 70% is not a monopoly.</p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        06 February, 2020 - 8:34 am

        Exactly right, but I’ll add that it is the ABUSE of monopoly power. Thankfully, there are antitrust regulators looking at this right now.

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      06 February, 2020 - 8:40 am

      It’s not hard to argue that Apple abuses its monopoly power over Spotify, as it is. And it makes one wonder how much better Spotify would be doing if Apple wasn’t doing that.

      • lvthunder

        Premium Member
        06 February, 2020 - 4:38 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#518588">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>So what market does Apple have a monopoly in?</p>

        • Andi

          06 February, 2020 - 5:47 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#518728">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>You Apple fanboys are incredible. Apple, the richest company in the world, does not need to have 100% of the market to have dominant position. In the context of a DUOPOLY of mobile platforms in the States – reminder, duopoly is not "healthy competition" – Apple has almost half of the users, by itself as an OEM is the largest individual player and, crucially, controls 70% of mobile app market by revenue. When you are a mobile dev you are absolutely at the mercy of the entity that controls 70% of the market revenue.</p>

          • red.radar

            Premium Member
            06 February, 2020 - 11:20 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#518734">In reply to Andi:</a></em></blockquote><p>Monopoly has nothing to do with the issue. </p><p><br></p><p>it’s anti-competitive and anti-trust. That is the central question. Market share is irrelevant it’s the fact that the competition has an unfair advantage because they control the platform. </p>

            • Paul Thurrott

              Premium Member
              07 February, 2020 - 7:25 am

              People misunderstand the term monopoly. It’s not as simple as “x percent” of usage/marketshare. Apple does have a monopoly on an audience of billions, and Spotify is paying the price. That needs to change. And it looks like it will.

        • Paul Thurrott

          Premium Member
          07 February, 2020 - 7:39 am
  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    05 February, 2020 - 1:59 pm

    <p>Ouch a 77 million operating loss. That's not good for the company. I don't see how Spotify survives unless it changes its business model or cuts costs.</p>

    • red.radar

      Premium Member
      05 February, 2020 - 7:08 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#518423">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>It is Rather surprising to have such a strong subscriber base but still post losses. Price increases coming ?</p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        06 February, 2020 - 8:32 am

        Apple Music is losing money too. It’s subsidized by Apple’s hardware businesses.

        • lvthunder

          Premium Member
          06 February, 2020 - 4:34 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#518581">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>How do you know that? I thought Apple's services brought in profits? Even if it's true Apple Music can lose money forever as long as Apple has other things that make up for that loss. Spotify doesn't have that luxury unless they get bought by some large company.</p>

          • Paul Thurrott

            Premium Member
            07 February, 2020 - 7:42 am

            Yes, Apple Music can lose money forever. I’m sure it will.

  • mixedfarmer75

    Premium Member
    06 February, 2020 - 10:33 am

    <p>So they are losing about 0.62/subscriber. A price increase by 1.00 could mean a profit of almost 50 million. That is if they they can do it without losing subscribers. Even if my numbers don't exactly translate, which they probably don't, the profit problem should solvable.</p>

    • mattbg

      Premium Member
      07 February, 2020 - 3:33 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#518614">In reply to MixedFarmer75:</a></em></blockquote><p>Perhaps they could go after people sharing the Family service against the terms of service (i.e. 5 unrelated people get together and chip in $3/mo for 1 of 5 accounts).</p><p><br></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">You have to be unbelievably cheap to see the full prices of these services as unreasonable for what you get.</span></p><p><br></p><p>I suppose the question is: "how?", because I'm sure Netflix would love to do the same when the time is right (or necessary).</p><p><br></p><p>I wonder if Apple has the same problem with Apple Music seeing as family sharing is part of the Apple-wide "Family" functionality. Creating a "Family" in Apple's ecosystem has many more implications than just who is sharing the music service, such that it may be risky for people who are not genuinely families to use it – apps, books, location/device tracking, ScreenTime stats, and iCloud are shared, and purchasing with payments going to the owner's account are also part of the equation.</p>

  • JH_Radio

    Premium Member
    06 February, 2020 - 12:50 pm

    <p>I'm curious how Tidal lossless (my prefered music service) survives. I know Amazon Music Unlimited HD (i subscribe to that too) has its other businesses to prop it up. and then there's Google Play Music (which I also have), and we know how Google makes money. add dollars .</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      06 February, 2020 - 4:28 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#518674">In reply to JH_Radio:</a></em></blockquote><p>Tidal survives by Jay Z continuing to make albums and investing more money into the company. Once he's out it's lights out for them.</p>

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