Spotify Adds Record 11 Million Premium Subscribers and Posts First Annual Profit

Spotify matched its best quarter ever for subscriber growth during the fourth quarter of 2024, the Stockholm-based music streaming giant reported on Tuesday morning, while at the same time posting a quarterly profit of about $380 million. That strong quarter helped solidify the first annual profit for Spotify since it was founded in 2006.

“I am very excited about 2025 and feel really good about where we are as both a product and as a business,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement. “We will continue to place bets that will drive long term impact, increasing our speed while maintaining the levels of efficiency we achieved last year. It’s this combination that will enable us to build the best and most valuable user experience, grow sustainably and deliver creativity to the world.”

Here are the top-line results: 

Revenue: €4.2 billion, or about $4.34 billion, which was an increase of 16% year-over-year and narrowly topped analyst estimates of $4.32 billion

Net Profit: €367 million, compared to a net loss of €70 million the year prior. This was the first year Spotify reported an annual profit, with the company posting a €1.14 billion — or about $1.18 billion — profit in 2024

Subscribers: Spotify added 11 million premium subscriber during the quarter, which pushed the company to 263 million subscribers overall. That was an 11% increase year-over-year, and the 11 million new subscribers matched a company record, set during the holiday quarter in 2019, for the most premium customers added in a single quarter. Most analysts had estimated Spotify would add around 8 million premium subscribers during Q4

Monthly Active Users: Grew 12% year-over-year to 675 million people. Spotify added 35 million monthly active users during the quarter, setting a Spotify record for MAUs added in a holiday quarter

Spotify, in its earnings report, said its popular annual “Wrapped” campaign delivered “record-high user engagement (+10% year-over-year)” but declined to share further details, beyond it hitting users in 184 markets.

The company also pointed to podcasts as a key driver of ad-supported gains during the quarter.

“Ad-Supported Revenue grew 7% year-over-year… reflecting year-over-year growth across all regions,” Spotify said in its Q4 earnings report. “Both Music and Podcast advertising was driven by growth in impressions sold, partially offset by softness in pricing.”

Still, the bulk of Spotify’s sales continued to be driven by premium memberships, rather than ad-supported revenue, during Q4. Spotify reported €3.7 billion, or about 87%, of its quarterly revenue came from premium customers, who pay $11.99 per month in the U.S.

Last week, Spotify announced it paid out a record $10 billion to the music industry in 2024,

The music streamer estimates that over 10,000 artists currently generate over $100,000 per year on the platform. In comparison, only 10,000 artists generated at least $10,000 per year back in 2014, when Spotify contributed around $1 billion to the music industry with around 15 million subscribers as global recorded music revenues hit $13 billion.

Spotify’s big Q4 helped send the company’s stock price 10.5% higher in pre-market trading to $607 per share. The streaming giant was already white hot on Wall Street in recent months, with Spotify’s stock surging 54% since the start of October heading into Tuesday morning.

The company will hold a call at 8:00 a.m. ET to discuss its Q4 report.

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