Swedish music streaming giant Spotify on Tuesday announced its first quarter (Q1) financial performance and also said more than half a billion people or 515 million people are using Spotify on a monthly basis. This is Spotify's strongest quarter since it was launched in 2018.
Daniel Ek, Spotify Founder, made the announcement of Twitter: "@Spotify's strongest Q1 since going public in 2018 and the second largest quarter of MAU growth in our history. Thank you to our teams worldwide for all you accomplished. More here: https://spoti.fi/40zMBRp."
Spotify's Monthly Active Users (MAUs) grew by 22 per cent year-over-year (YoY) to 515 million, driven by strength in both developed and developing markets, and nearly all age groups. Dominated by Latin America and Europe, Spotify's premium subscribers grew 15 per cent YoY to 210 million with outperformance across all regions.
To recall, earlier in February, Spotify had announced that its premium subscribers base has hit 205 million, representing a 14 per cent increase YoY. With that addition, Spotify had outpaced the likes of rivals Amazon Music and Apple Music to become the world's first music streaming company to achieve the premium user base.
The audio streaming giant hit the milestone in a quarter where it joined the likes of Meta, Twitter, Amazon and Google to lay off employees. Spotify laid off 6 per cent of its staff globally, a report said in late January. According to Ek, Spotify's operating (loss)/income finished at €156 million, supported by lower marketing spend.
Spotify's total revenue in Q1 grew 14 per cent YoY to €3.0 billion, led by subscriber gains while gross margin finished at 25.2 per cent, reflecting improved music and podcast profitability.