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Spotify added a record number of users in a quarter and tripled its profits from the same period a year ago, as its strategy of turning the screw on listeners with price rises bears fruit.
The music streamer reached 751mn monthly users in the three months to the end of December, adding 38mn in the quarter, while paying subscribers rose 9mn to 290mn. Both figures were ahead of the company’s forecasts.
Spotify posted net income of €1.17bn, or €4.43 a share — up from €367mn in the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected €2.71 a share on average.
Shares rose as much as 15 per cent in premarket trading in New York on Tuesday. In the past year the stock has fallen almost 30 per cent, in contrast to an 18 per cent gain for the S&P 500 index.
Spotify has been raising prices around the world in recent years as it sought to reach sustainable profitability. Subscriber growth shows listeners have so far accepted higher prices.
However, the results do not include the impact of a price rise in the US, its largest market, that was introduced last month. A US premium subscription now costs $12.99 a month, up from $11.99.
Spotify made €4.5bn in revenue in the quarter, up 7 per cent from a year ago.
“It’s incredible to think that we now serve over three-quarters of a billion people around the world,” said co-chief executive Alex Norström.
He said Spotify dubbed 2025 its “year of accelerated execution”, while 2026 would be the “year of raising ambition”.
This was the first quarter during which Norström and Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s new co-chief executives, were in charge.
In September, Daniel Ek said he would step down to become executive chair of the company he co-founded two decades ago. The move took effect at the start of January.
The major record labels have been pressing Spotify and other music platforms to raise their prices, arguing charges have lagged inflation and are cheap compared with video services such as Netflix.
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