Spotify Stock Pops On Quarterly Numbers
Shares of giant music streamer Spotify have jumped 13% in pre-market trading as the company grew premium, subscribers, revenue and profit for the second quarter ended in June.
Monthly active users rose 14% to 626 million and expanded across all regions, although a bit below Wall Street’s guidance. But subscribers jumped 12% to 246 million, beating estimates and driving a 20% just in revenue to 3.8 billion euros driven by the subscriber gains and increases in ARPU (average revenue per user).
Ad-supported revenue grew 13%.
Layoffs and restructuring last year helped keep the company in the black.
Spotify reported a profit of €274 million (about $298 million) driven in part by higher sales and lower marketing but also by “efficiency actions” last year meaning layoffs and restructuring.
Music and podcast profitability were offset in part by audiobooks costs. Operating Income was €266 million in
At the end of Q2, our workforce consisted of 7,372 full-time employees globally.
“It’s an exciting time at Spotify. We keep on innovating and showing that we aren’t just a great product, but increasingly also a great business,” said CEO Daniel Ek. “We are doing so on a timeline that has exceeded even our own expectations. This all bodes very well for the future.”
It’s the second quarter in the black as Spotify looks to become consistently profitable.
During the three months the Stockholm, Sweden-based company said it expanded video podcast catalog to more than 250,000 shows; incorporated over 250,000 audiobook titles into its premium offering in Canada, Ireland and New Zealand; introduced Basic plan in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to give eligible users the option for ad-free music listening without audiobook listening time; and introduced Creative Lab, a new in-house ad creative agency and Quick Audio, a generative AI tool for advertisers.
Spotify offers over 100 million tracks, more than 6 million podcasts titles, and 350,000 audiobooks a la carte across 184 markets.
