Spotify becomes worlds first music streaming platform to surpass 200 mn paid users

Music streaming platform Spotify on Tuesday announced its premium subscribers base has touched 205 million, representing a 14 percent increase year-on-year. This makes Spotify the world’s first music streaming company to achieve such a large user base. Also Read: OpenAI Brings Spotify, Canva, Coursera and More Inside ChatGPT: Here’s What You Can Do

Its monthly active users (MAUs) reached 489 million, a 20 percent increase (YoY), according to the company’s Q4 2022 earnings report. Also Read: Spotify Hikes Premium Subscription Prices In India: Here's What You’ll Now Pay

Spotify becomes the first streaming platform to have 200 million paid users

“Q422 delivered great platform growth. We ended 2022 strongly despite a challenging year. Expect us to move faster with more intensity of effort, driving even greater efficiency in 2023,” CEO Daniel Ek said in a tweet. Also Read: Instagram is Testing Some New Features like Feed Reordering, Quiet Posts and More

On the earnings front, Spotify posted an operating loss of around $250 million for the quarter.

The MAU net additions reached a quarterly record-high of 33 million in Q4, 10 million above guidance. Subscriber growth also materially outperformed, exceeding guidance by 3 million net additions.

“Looking back on 2022 in its entirety, we are pleased with our overall results. Each year presents certain challenges and opportunities and, over the past 12 months, we largely delivered on our internal goals and we are excited about the momentum we are building heading into 2023,” said Spotify.

For the unversed, Spotify is testing a “Friends tab” feature that will appear in the app’s bottom navigation bar for some subset of Spotify’s users. Notably, the company has not made any public announcements about its plans to launch a Friends tab on mobile.

Spotify has recently announced that it is reducing its workforce across teams by six percent. The company, as per its earnings report for the third quarter, had a workforce of around 9,800 employees. As per the company’s latest announcement, it will be letting go of around 588 employees in its latest cost-cutting measure. The company reportedly cut 38 jobs in October last year.

Spotify also announced that it was letting go off, Dawn Ostroff, who was the company’s Chief Content and Advertising Officer.

–With inputs from IANS