NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — With just a week to go before their debut on the New York Stock Exchange, Spotify painted a rosy picture of itself in its latest filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
In a 6-K filing, Spotify described a future with burgeoning premium subscribers and narrowing financial losses. Highlights for the year include projected total monthly active users (MAU) of 168-171 million, which is 28%-31% improvement over 2017.
As well, Spotify projects that they will grow their premium subscription business substantially, with between 73-76 million users paying for subscriptions to the music streaming service in 2018. That’s a marked improvement of 41-46% over the previous year.
Spotify’s projections for Q1 and the full year for 2018:
First Quarter 2018 Financial Outlook
• Total Monthly Active Users (“MAU”)1: 168-171 million, up 28-31% Y/Y
• Total Premium Subscribers2: 73-76 million, up 41-46% Y/Y
• Total Revenue: €1.10-1.15 billion, up 22-27% Y/Y. We anticipate changes in foreign exchange rates will have a negative impact of approximately €95-105 million in the quarter3
• Gross Margin: 23-24%. This includes a 60 bp benefit from a one-time estimated accrual adjustment associated with prior periods
• Operating loss: €50-€80 million
Full Year 2018 Financial Outlook
• Total MAUs1: 198-208 million, up 26-32% Y/Y
• Total Premium Subscribers2: 92-96 million, up 30-36% Y/Y
• Total Revenue: €4.9-5.3 billion, up 20-30% Y/Y. We anticipate changes in foreign exchange rates will have a negative impact of approximately €260-300 million for the full year3
• Gross Margin: 23-25%
• Operating loss: €230-330 million. This includes an estimated total cost for the direct listing of roughly €35-40 million which we expect to expense in Q2
