(CelebrityAccess) — Music streaming service Spotify has filed its third-quarter financial report, showing huge increases in monthly active users and premium subscribers.
According to Spotify’s Q3 earnings statement, the company expanded its monthly active user (MAU) base to 248 million, up 30% from the same period the previous year and a 7% improvement over the 232 million MAUs it reported last quarter.
Spotify also touted its premium subscriber base, claiming that it has about 113 million paying users and noting that its ratio of premium to ad-supported subscribers has remained steady at about 45% for the quarter. The premium subscriber totals are up 31% from 87 million Spotify reported in the third quarter of 2018 and slightly ahead of analysts’ projections for premium subscriber growth.
Spotify attributed its growth in premium subscribers to the “strong performance” of its student and family plans and noted that it was well ahead of its best estimates of Apple’s subscriber adds. Premium subscriptions continue to be the main revenue component for Spotify and account for more than 90% of its income in the third quarter.
“Relative to Apple, the publicly available data shows that we are adding roughly twice as many subscribers per month as they are,” Spotify said in its filing. “Additionally, we believe that our monthly engagement is roughly 2 times as high and our churn is at half the rate.”
Spotify reported revenue for the quarter of €1.7 billion ($1.9 billion), up 28% year-on-year from the same period in 2018, and up 4% from Q2. The streamer reported operating profits of €54 million ($60 million) which it attributed to a higher gross profit and a lower than expected spending on areas that included artist marketing, original content promotion, and research and development.
However, Spotify anticipates that the company will return to an operating loss for Q4 2019.
Spotify also used its earnings report to announce that the company’s chief financial officer Barry McCarthy will exit the company in January. McCarthy has served as CFO for Spotify for 5 years. In his stead, Spotify will promote Paul Vogel, who currently serves as Head of FP&A, Treasury and Investor Relations at Spotify, to the post of CFO.
