Spotify has become the first streaming platform with more than 200million paid subscribers

NME

Spotify continues to reign supreme as the most popular subscription-based music streaming platform, having recently become the first with over 200million paying customers.

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According to the company’s Q4 2022 earnings report – which you can read in its entirety here – 205million users were streaming content with Spotify Premium accounts, marking a 14 per cent increase from data recorded in 2021. An additional 295million listeners used Spotify under its free, ad-supported base model.

Naturally, the streaming giant’s latest milestone has come with great financial benefits: revenue earned from Premium subscriptions grew by 18 per cent to €2.7billion (£2.41billion), while ad revenue grew 14 per cent to €449million (£400.4million). The company’s overall profit came in at €3.2billion (£2.85billion), another 18 per cent increase.

Nevertheless, Spotify announced recently that it plans to cut six per cent of its workforce – up to 600 employees, plus chief content officer Dawn Ostroff – over the next few months. In an internal memo to staff, Chief executive Daniel Ek said the company was restructuring to promote “speed”, writing: “As we evolve and grow as a business, so must our way of working while still staying true to our core values.”

In its most recent earnings report, Spotify claimed it took a €231million (£204million) operating loss, while its gross profit came in at €801million (£714million).

Meanwhile, Spotify recently launched a new feature called Playlist In A Bottle, allowing users to create a playlist that will only become accessible after a year.

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