What you need to know
- Spotify reported significant growth in its end-of-year financial results released Tuesday, Feb. 4.
- Led by Spotify Wrapped engagement and success in emerging markets, Spotify grew its monthly active user count by 12%.
- The company called out Wrapped, AI, and video, but did not mention the lossless audio project.
Spotify is the most popular music streaming service on the planet, and it continued growing in 2024, per its fourth-quarter financial results. In a year that saw Spotify double-down on podcasts, video, and AI, all while not delivering on its lossless audio promise from 2024, the platform still grew its subscriber base by 11% year-over-year.
The company reported having 263 paid subscribers to Spotify Premium in the fourth quarter, which is an increase from 252 million in the third quarter. It's also above Spotify's internal expectations, which it attributed to Spotify Wrapped and other holiday marketing campaigns. Additionally, it says it edged out music streaming competitors in emerging markets, like Latin America and global markets.
Spotify's total monthly active users saw an uptick last year, too, reaching 675 million in 2024. That represents a 12% increase year-over-year, and is also 35 million more monthly active users than Spotify had as recently as Q3 2024. Again, the brand says Wrapped and other campaigns helped the service grow.
Oddly, Spotify's press release and investor presentation shows off a lot of non-music features prominently, signaling that the service may be growing due to its extra-curriculars. These include Wrapped, which Spotify reports saw 10% higher engagement than last year, and its closely-related AI DJ experience.
Additionally, the company called out its push on the video podcast front and the Spotify Partner Program — a way for audio and video creators to earn on the platform, like competing platforms TikTok and YouTube offer.
Spotify didn't mention the state of its lossless audio project, which was announced in 2021 and missed its target release window with few updates. Tidal and Apple Music have offered high-fidelity audio for year, eclipsing Spotify in this regard despite Spotify's market dominance.
The company expects its growth to continue in the first quarter of 2025, when it projects to add two million Premium subscribers.
