Spotify's paid subscribers surge >150 million in Q4 last year, but ...

Spotify has recently revealed its financial results for Q4 last year, showing strong growth in the number of its glocal Premium Subscriber base in the last quarter of the year (ended December 31st).

Spotify has recently released its financial results for Q4 last year

At the end of Q4 2020, Spotify's Premium Subscribers hit 155 million, up by 11 million (7 percent) on the 144 million that it counted at the end of Q3 2020, and up 31 million (24 percent) year-on-year (YoY). Meanwhile, its total Monthly Active Users (MAUs) also grew 27 percent YoY to 345 million in the last quarter of 2020 and by 8 percent compared to the previous quarter.

Despite the growths in paid subscribers, Spotify is still losing money

According to the Wall Street Journal (via the Verge), the average revenue per Spotify user decreased by 8 percent to €4.26 (about $5.13) as compared to 2019. That's due to the discounted plans used to attract new subscribers, as well as the lower prices the company charges in markets like India and Russia.

However, advertising revenue was up, accounting for 13 percent of revenue in spite of historically bringing in <10 percent. As per WTJ, advertising has become a growth area when the company expands the podcast business. 

Overall, Spotify made a loss of €125 million; however, that's significantly down from the €209 million loss the company made in the previous year. The WSJ notes that it is rare for Spotify to post a profit as it continues to invest money in growth. 

At the end of Q4 2020, Spotify's Premium Subscribers hit 155 million (Image Source: Spotify)

The earnings report comes as the company continues to make large investments outside the music. Spotify recently made moves into audiobooks. It's also heavily investing in podcasts, now offering over 2.2 million podcasts through its services. Spotify's podcast consumption was reportedly up almost 100 percent compared to Q4, 2019. The company also says that 25 percent of Spotify users engaged with podcast content during Q4 2020.

Details on Spotify’s financial results for Q4 2020 can be found here: https://investors.spotify.com/financials/press-release-details/2021/Spotify-Technology-S.A.-Announces-Financial-Results-for-Fourth-Quarter-2020/default.aspx

See also: Bandwidth hogging: Top things eating up a lot of internet bandwidth

Sources:

theverge.com/2021/2/3/22262508/spotify-q4-2020-earnings-subscriber-numbers-users-podcasts-audiobooks