Copyright Variety
Spotify saw double-digit growth on its free and paid-subscription tiers for the third quarter of 2025, as the audio streaming delivered results that met or beat Wall Street forecasts. The company’s added 5 million paid Premium subscribers, up 12% to 281 million. Overall monthly active users grew 11% to 713 million, a better-than-expected 17 million net gain. Total Spotify Q3 revenue increased 7% to €4.27 billion, while advertising revenue declined -6% (or flat year-over-year on a constant currency basis). Growth in music and podcast advertising sales — driven by growth in impressions sold — was offset by “softness in pricing and optimization of our podcasting inventory in our Owned & Licensed portfolio,” Spotify said in announcing earnings. Operating income for Q3 was €582 million, up 43%, and Spotify swung to a €899 million net profit, versus a net loss of €86 million in the year-earlier period. “The business is healthy. We’re shipping faster than ever,” Daniel Ek, Spotify founder and CEO, said in prepared remarks. “And we have the tools we need — pricing, product innovation, operational leverage, and eventually the ads turnaround — to deliver both revenue growth and profit expansion. It all comes back to user fundamentals and that’s where we are: 700 million users who keep coming back, engagement at all-time highs. We’re building Spotify for the long-term.” At the start of 2026, Ek is relinquishing his role as CEO to become executive chairman. As of Jan. 1, Spotify will have two co-CEOs: Gustav Söderström, currently co-president and chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, co-president and chief business officer. At the end of Q3, Spotify had 7,323 full-time employees globally. In Q3, Spotify launched 30 new features and updates for both Free and Premium users, including an enhanced Free tier, playlist mixing tools, lossless audio, a ChatGPT integration and in-app DMs. The overriding goal is to make it easier for users to discover and create content on the platform, while driving engagement and time spent. Last month, Spotify announced a new deal with Amazon that gives advertisers using Amazon DSP programmatic access to Spotify’s streaming audio and video inventory, alongside a similar deal with Yahoo. For Q4, Spotify expects revenue of €4.5 billion (which would be up 6%) and operating income of €620 million (versus €477 million a year earlier). The company is forecasting total Q4 user net adds of 32 million MAUs, to reach 745 million by the end of 2025, and to add 8 million paid subs to reach 289 million.
