SPOTIFY TOPS 83M
IN SUBSCRIBERS

Spotify’s number of premium users rose 40% between June of 2017 and June of this year, reaching 83m premium subscribers by the end of the streaming company’s second quarter. The company also saw monthly active users on the ad-supported tier rise to 180m at the end of Q2, up 30% over the previous year.

By the end of the year, the Daniel Ek-led company predicts it will top 200m in total monthly active users and have between 93m and 97m premium subscribers.

Spotify announced its quarterly report Thursday morning, reporting $1.45b in total revenue in the three months ended 6/30. Operating loss was $105m, approximately 7% of total revenue, which included expenses related to its direct listing on the NYSE accrued social costs for options and RSUs.

Premium revenue in Q2 was $1.35b, up 27% year over year; ad-supported revenue was $144 million, up 20%.

The company said results were “largely in line with our expectations.”

Results pushed the stock up more than 4% in early morning trading to as much as $198.99 a share.

The majority of ad revenue is coming from the mobile platform, and video has become the fastest growing source of revenue.

The rise in subscribers, up 10% from the previous quarter, owed to a mid-year campaign, a new family plan and the extension of the Spotify+Hulu bundle, the company said.

In a conference call, Chief Executive Ek shot down rumors that the company will start to do direct deals with rights holders. The deals it has with artists, Ek noted, are neither exclusive nor do they make Spotify content owners.

“Licensing content doesn’t make us a label nor do we have any interest in becoming a label,” Ek said.