Spotify Now Has 299 Million Users

As part of its quarterly earnings report, Spotify announced this week that it now has nearly 300 million monthly average users (MAUs).

“Our business performed well in Q2 and continues to operate at a high level despite the continuing uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic,” an open letter from Spotify to its shareholders reads. “Excluding the impact of social charges related to the increase in our share price during Q2, all of our key metrics would have finished at or ahead of our expectations. Our liquidity position and Free Cash Flow remain strong, and we are encouraged with the underlying trends of the business.”

Spotify reported a net loss of $417.76 million on revenues of $2.22 billion, the latter of which is a gain of 13 percent year-over-year (YOY). But that net loss is massive compared to the year-ago quarter, when Spotify lost $89 million. The firm says that this was because of “social charges that were about $148 million higher than expected. These are “payroll taxes associated with employee salaries and benefits, including share-based compensation that the company is subject to in various countries,” Variety reports.

Spotify’s subscriber base is doing much better than the company’s financials. The firm reports that its total MAU figure grew 29 percent in the quarter to 299 million, so the firm added 13 million new users in the quarter. 8 million of those new users are paying customers, too, who subscribe to a premium Spotify offering. Overall, 138 million of Spotify’s MAUs are paying premium subscribers.

Also good news, after a brief drop in usage because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spotify reports that “global consumption hours have recovered to pre-COVID levels,” with all regions except for Latin America fully recovered.