Spotify Posts a Loss in Q3 But Subscribers and Active Users Surged

Spotify reported that it lost €72 million on revenues of €4.27 billion in the quarter ending September 30, 2025. Revenues were up 1.85 percent, but the service’s subscribers and monthly active users (MAUs) were both up by double digits.

“Today, we announced our third quarter 2025 earnings, marking strong momentum as we surpassed 700 million monthly active users and achieved double-digit subscriber growth,” a Spotify summary of the quarter explains.

I’ve praised Spotify for its transparency, but this quarter’s report is marred by a troubling earnings misdirection. For example, the company claims that “total revenues” were up by 12 percent year-over-year (YOY) “in constant currency,” but the actual figure is 1.85 percent, as noted above. And it continues to claim profitability—and even “profit expansion,” in co-founder Daniel Ek’s words—when it lost €72 million: Spotify is citing its operating income there, which excludes many costs that did impact the bottom line.

Fortunately, Spotify continues to be transparent about its user base. The service added 17 million new MAUs in the quarter, landing at 713 million total MAUs and a gain of 11 percent YOY. Of those 713 million users, 281 million are paid subscribers (a gain of 12 percent YOY) and 446 million are ad-supported (a gain of 11 percent YOY). Premium subscribers accounted for €3.8 billion of Spotify’s revenues in the quarter, up 9 percent YOY, while ad-supported users accounted for €446 million, a decline of 6 percent YOY.

Financial shenanigans notwithstanding, Spotify had a busy quarter: It launched 30 new products, including the long-awaited lossless audio support, a completely revamped Apple TV app, integration with OpenAI ChatGPT, video podcasts on Netflix, and a lot more. The company also announced that co-founder Daniel Ek will step down as CEO on January 1.

“The business is healthy,” Mr. Ek said of his second-to-last quarter as CEO. “We’re shipping faster than ever. And we have the tools we need – pricing, product innovation, operational leverage, and eventually the ads turnaround – to deliver both revenue growth and profit expansion … We’re building Spotify for the long term.”