What you need to know
- Spotify has published its results for Q4 of 2019.
- The service now has 124M subscribers, up 29% year-on-year.
- Podcast consumption on the platform has also grown exponentially over the last 12 months.
Spotify has posted its results for Q4 of 2019, confirming that it now has 124M subscribers.
In its full release Spotify said:
The business continued to perform well in 4Q19. For the third consecutive quarter, total MAU growth accelerated while Subscribers, Revenue, and Gross Margin all met or exceeded our expectations. We continue to see exponential growth in podcast hours streamed (up approximately 200% Y/Y) and are now seeing clear indications that podcast usage is driving increased overall engagement and retention. We have seen early indications that our investments in podcasts are having a positive impact on conversion of free to paid users. Overall, the business performance remains strong, and we believe we are well positioned for growth in the coming year.
As mentioned, Spotify now has 124M subscribers and 271M monthly active users. Spotify's expansion into the world of podcasting has also proven to be a hit. In the last 12 months, podcast consumption hours grew by a whopping 200% year-on-year. Spotify also expanded its podcast business with Spotify Podcast ads, powered by Streaming Ad Insertion, and launched its 'Your Daily Podcasts' feature in several countries. It now has more than 700,000 podcast titles available on its platform.
Total revenue for Q4 came in at around 1.8 billion euro, just shy of $2 billion. Gross profit rose to $522.1 million, however it made a loss of $84 million.
Looking ahead to 2020, Spotify said it was "enthusiastic about the underlying trends in the business." By the end of Q1 2020, Spotify's guidance states it could have between 279-289 million monthly active users, and between 126-131 million users. By the end of the year, that could rise to 348 million and 153 million respectively. Guidance is, of course, just guidance and subject to "substantial uncertainty". Just now, however, Spotify believes it has a bright future.
