Spotify now has 165 mn premium subscribers

Swedish music streaming giant Spotify on Wednesday announced that it now has 165 million premium subscribers and 365 million monthly active users.

It's a year-over-year increase of 20 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, and up from the 158 million subscribers and 356 million MAUs reported in the last quarter.

"Q2 was a strong quarter for Spotify overall, with the majority of our major metrics performing better than expected," Daniel Ek, Spotify CEO and founder, said in a statement.

"While MAU growth was softer than expected in the first half of the year, we are seeing that trendline reverse and all the leading indicators show that we are back on track," Ek added.

The company, presenting its June quarter earnings, said that it added seven million subscribers in Q2, which drove healthy double digit year-over-year growth across all regions.

Spotify also said that the revenue of 2,331 million euro grew 23 per cent year-over-year in Q2 and was toward the top end of guidance range due to significant advertising strength and subscriber outperformance.

Within premium, average revenue per user of 4.29 euro in Q2 was down 3 per cent year-over-year.

Podcasting consumption was up 95 per cent year-over-year in aggregate and more than 30 per cent year-over-year on a per user basis while week-over-week and month-over-month retention rates reached all-time highs.

"Ad-Supported Revenue outperformed our forecast, driven by strong underlying demand (benefiting sellout and pricing) and aided by favourable comps vs. last year's Covid-19 lows," the company said.

"The strength in Ad-Supported Revenue was led by our Direct and Podcast sales channels, with the latter benefiting from a triple-digit year-over-year gain at existing Spotify studios (The Ringer, Parcast, Spotify Studios, and Gimlet) along with contributions from the Megaphone acquisition, the exclusive licensing of the Joe Rogan Experience and Higher Ground," it added.

Ad Studio grew 165 per cent year-over-year due to the success of the video product within Ad Studio and international market contributions, the company said.