Spotify hits 433 mn monthly active users riding on India growth

New Delhi, July 27 Riding on better-than-expected performance in the India market, Swedish music-streaming platform Spotify on Wednesday said it now has 433 million monthly active users (MAUs), up 19 million (year-on-year) and above the company's guidance by 5 million.

Spotify's premium subscribers grew 14 per cent to 188 million in the April-June quarter, up from 182 million in Q1.

"Quarterly performance versus our guidance was impacted by outperformance in India, Indonesia and The Philippines as a result of marketing campaigns and elevated OEM intake," the company said in a statement.

The company said that excluding its impact from Russia exit and the "service outage benefit" its experienced in March, it added 19 million MAUs in the quarter which is its largest quarter in history.

Its net loss in the quarter was $197 million on revenue of $2.9 billion.

The company said that its now hosts 4.4 million podcasts on the platform, and "the number of MAUs that engaged with podcasts grew in the substantial double-digits year on year and per user podcast consumption rates continued to rise."

The company said that advertising revenue grew 31 per cent to reach 13 per cent of total revenue, reflecting growth across all regions and sales channels.

"Our music business saw healthy double-digit growth and podcast revenue grew in the strong double-digit range led by the Spotify Audience Network," the company informed.

In June, Spotify announced plans to slow headcount growth by 25 per cent beginning in Q3, while also taking a closer look at marketing activity.

"While we continue to monitor the uncertain macro environment, we are very pleased with the resilience of the business, particularly our strength in MAUs and subscribers," said the company.