Spotify Has 515 Million Active Users, Up 22 Percent

As part of its latest quarterly earnings announcement, Spotify reported that it now has 515 million monthly active users (MAUs), up 22 percent year-over-year (YOY).

The firm delivered an operating loss of €156 million on revenues of €3 billion for the quarter ending March 31. Revenues were up 14 percent YOY.

“MAU net additions of 26 million were 15 million above guidance, our highest Q1 ever and the fifth quarter in a row of accelerating Y/Y growth,” Spotify summarized in a presentation deck related to the announcement. “Subscriber net additions of 5 million also reflected a material uptick vs. the prior year trend and were 3 million above guidance. Revenue growth was slightly below our expectations due to macro-related variability in our advertising business.”

Looking at the subscriber numbers, Spotify now has 210 million paying Premium subscribers, up 15 percent YOY. And it has 317 million ad-supported subscribers, up 26 percent YOY. Spotify’s Premium subscribers provided €2.7 billion in revenue, up 14 percent YOY, while its ad-supported subscribers accounted for just €329 million in revenues, down 17 percent YOY.

“Looking ahead, we continue to anticipate a meaningful improvement in our Operating Expense ratios and Operating Income/(Loss) in 2023 and beyond,” the firm added, noting that its operating expenses were primarily driven by “residual headcount growth.” In other words, Spotify laid off 600 employees—about 6 percent of its workforce—in January and the cost of that was included in this earnings report.