Spotify, one of the most popular digital music platforms in the world , broke a record. According to the shared fourth-quarter results, Spotify became the first company to exceed 200 million paid subscribers . Spotify’s premium subscribers rose to 205 million as of December 31, with the company’s statement stating that there was a 14 percent year-on-year increase in the number of paid users. The number of monthly active users of the platform increased by 20 percent to 489 million.
The company’s expectation was 202 million premium users and 479 million monthly active users. In other words, the company exceeded expectations with 3 million premium users and 10 million monthly active users.
Spotify posted an operating loss of 231 million euros this quarter. Shares of Spotify rose more than 4 percent in pre-market trading, according to the results. Spotify’s ad-supported revenue in Q4 increased 14 percent year-over-year to 449 million euros, led by podcast earnings. The company’s gross margin for the quarter was 25.3 percent.
The company said its 2022 Spotify Wrapped campaign received significantly more engagement than the previous year. More than 150 million users in 111 markets participated in this campaign.
Daniel Ek, CEO of the company, also said that Spotify has increased prices in more than 40 markets in 2022, but there are no price increases to announce at this time.
Ahead of its fourth-quarter report, Spotify cut its headcount by 6 percent last week and laid off nearly 600 people. The company also announced that Dawn Ostroff, who had spearheaded Spotify’s take on podcasts over the past four years, is leaving the company. In addition, senior managers Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström were promoted to the position of co-chairman, reporting to CEO Daniel Ek.
