(CelebrityAccess) — Digital music streamer Spotify announced continued and significant growth in both revenue and paying subscribers in the third quarter of 2021, with total revenue for the period topping €2.5 billion.
Spotify’s revenue for the quarter was up by 27% from the same period in 2020 and improved by 7% from the previous quarter of 2021. Spotify attributed the growth in revenue to “significant strength” in advertising, including for the platform’s ad-supported users, a subset of users where ad revenue improved by 75% from last year.
“Ad-Supported Revenue meaningfully outperformed, driven by higher sold impressions, increased CPMs, and accelerated demand within the Spotify Audience Network. The strength in advertising was broad-based across all sales channels, with the United States and United Kingdom meaningfully exceeding expectations,” Spotify said.
The streamer also went from a net loss of €40 million in operating income in Q3 2020 to a net gain of €75 million for the quarter, but reported 12% more operating expenses, totaling €593 million for the period.
Spotify also revealed that the all-important Monthly Active User count grew by an impressive 19% during the quarter to 365 million active users, which was at the upper end of their guidance range from the previous quarter.
Of that MAU count, 165 million were paying for subscriptions to Spotify, an increase of 19% from the same quarter in 2020. Spotify cited a premium promotion as helping to drive subscriber growth, along with major promotional partnerships with mobile device makers in several markets around the world.
As well, Spotify noted that its monthly churn rate for premium subscribers was down from the previous quarter of 2021 but up for the quarter, year-over-year.
Spotify also touted its growth in content during the quarter, with the addition of about 300,000 new podcasts along with “significant new release activity” in its available music catalog.
The company also pointed to several new features, including Blend, which allows users to merge playlists with other users, and Enhance, which allows premium users to add personalized recommendations to playlists as drivers of subscriber growth.
