Spotify Now Has 205 Million Premium Subscribers

Spotify released its earnings reports for the fourth quarter of 2022 today, and the company revealed that it has crossed 205 million subscribers, up from 180 million a year ago. The music streaming service also had 489 million monthly active users in Q4 2022, up from 406 million in the same period last year.

The company’s total revenue for the quarter grew 18% year-over-year to €3.166 billion, with ad-supported revenue growing 14% year-over-year to €449 million. Spotify said that these gains mostly come from podcasting, which remains a priority for the company. Despite its deep roots as a music streaming service, Spotify aims to become the number one audio platform and it’s counting on podcasts and audiobooks to continue its growth.

However, Spotify reported an operating loss of €231 million due in part to higher personnel and advertising costs and currency fluctuations. Last week, the company announced that it was laying off 6% of its staff, which represents roughly 600 employees.

In Q4 2022, Spotify started rolling out user choice billing in select markets. This allows Android users to subscribe to Spotify Premium without using their Google Play account, which means that Google doesn’t get a 30% cut on subscriptions.

Third-party billing options are currently available for select Android users in more than 140 markets, and Spotify will keep pushing to make it the standard on mobile app stores. Earlier this month, Spotify and other companies sent an open letter to the European Commission to ask the organization to stop Apple’s anticompetitive practices on its App Store.