Swedish music streaming giant Spotify, in its earnings report yesterday said that it now has 158 million premium subscribers and 356 million monthly active users. This makes for a 21 percent year-on-year increase in premium subscribers and a 28 percent increase in monthly active users. Spotify’s growth comes as the company is focusing on podcasts as a way to convert free users into premium subscribers. The company has said that ad-supported revenue outperformed its forecast thanks to Spotify’s podcast efforts. Spotify said that it has seen a “strong increase” in the amount of hours of podcast listening on the platform, though the actual proportion of users listening to podcasts was “consistent” with the previous quarter.
Spotify, which launched its services in 86 new countries in the past quarter quarter, said growth in the United States, Mexico, Russia, and India offset lower-than-expected growth in Latin America and Europe. Revenue rose to 2.15 billion euros for the three months ended March 31, from 1.85 billion euros a year earlier. Analysts were expecting revenue of 2.14 billion euros. This comes a day after Spotify launched a paid subscription platform for podcasters to challenge a similar service unveiled by Apple.
Spotify on Monday also said it has partnered with Facebook to allow listeners to play music and podcasts directly from the social network’s iOS and Android apps. Facebook last week said it planned to launch several audio products, including Clubhouse-style live audio rooms and a way for users to find and play podcasts.
The new integration is rolling out in 27 markets, including the US and Canada, with additional markets to follow in the coming month, Spotify said in a statement. Spotify’s paid subscribers would be able to access full playback without advertisements and without leaving the Facebook app.
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