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Streaming service Spotify: Number one ahead of services like Apple Music
Photo: Jonathan Raa / NurPhoto / IMAGO
Spotify continues to grow: According to its latest figures, the music streaming market leader has exceeded the 200 million premium customer mark for the first time.
At the end of the past quarter, the Swedish company had 205 million paying users worldwide.
The service was able to gain ten million subscription customers within three months.
The total number of users, which also includes users of the free version of Spotify, rose from 456 million users at the end of September to 489 million most recently.
According to its own statements, Spotify expects a slower influx of users for the current quarter: the number of subscription customers is expected to increase by around two million and the total number of users will reach the 500 million mark.
The bottom line is a minus
The company's sales grew by 18 percent year-on-year in the last quarter to around 3.17 billion euros.
Advertising revenue increased by 14 percent to EUR 449 million.
The bottom line is that Spotify posted a loss of 270 million euros in the past quarter, partly because the company has been investing heavily in its podcast business for some time.
A year earlier, the minus in the same quarter was 39 million euros.
An example of spending in recent years: His deal with the controversial podcaster Joe Rogan alone is said to have been worth more than $200 million to the company.
Spotify announced last week that it would cut 6 percent of its jobs.
As of December 31, the service had 10,151 employees – so the cuts are likely to affect around 600 employees.
Founder and boss Daniel Ek pointed out that the service had grown too quickly for his business during the pandemic boom.
Spotify is the world's largest premium music streaming service, with more subscribers than direct competitors like Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited and YouTube Music.
Spotify's premium subscriptions cost between 5 euros (student plan) and 15 euros (family plan) per month.
mbo/dpa