Spotify Melts Faces After World-Class Earnings Beat (Users Go Brrr)

$SPOT didn’t hear no bell…

So it appears Spotify just reminded everyone who actually owns the aux cord. And by that, I mean, they put on an absolute clinic in the name of public competitor execution (sup, Apple Music). 

(Source: X.com) 

In short, Revenue hit 4.53B euros, up 7% YoY, basically in line with estimates… but when you’re printing that kind of earnings leverage, nobody cares about a bean counting error on sales. As for net income, Spotify pulled in $1.17B euros which is yuuuge considering that a year ago, it was only at $367M. However, the real spine rip was the user tally. Monthly active users jumped 11% to 751M, clearing expectations. Paid subs up 10% to 290M. Even the ad-supported crowd… 476M strong… clapped the Streat. Translation: The “free tier freeloaders” are now a monetization farm, not a charity case.

(Source: CNBC) 

Additionally, growth was broad too… Latin America, Europe, rest-of-world. Mobile free tier improvements. Audiobooks expanding. Music videos for Premium users. AI tools sprinkled in like seasoning. This is what happens when you quietly compound instead of chasing every shiny object. Oh, and they hiked Premium prices again in the U.S., Estonia, and Latvia. After doing it in 2023 (and 2024), subs still grew. Turns out, when you’re embedded into everyone's daily… gym, commute, love-making (in no particular order)... churn gets sticky. 

Naturally, the marked understood the assignment as shares ripped 15%, best day since 2019. Investors love two things: user growth and proof you can make actual money. Spotify handed them both. Looking ahead, management sees MAUs adding another 8M this quarter to 759M. Premium subs projected at 293M. Revenue guide is 4.5B euros, a touch light versus 4.58B expected, with FX taking a 670-basis-point bite. But… let’s be honest, when you just dropped that kind of earnings beat, currency headwinds feel like background noise.

(Source: Giphy) 

Elsewhere, “Spotify Wrapped” also did numbers. Over 300M users interacted. 630M+ shares on social media. It’s basically a yearly unpaid marketing campaign where users roast themselves for listening to the same three songs on repeat. Engagement flywheel, spinning.

Meaning, if you took nothing from this other than Spotify cleaning house on Apple Music and Amazon Music… well that’s the point. Spotify figured out scale, pricing power, and margin discipline at the same time. That’s when a “growth story” turns into a machine. And the machine just had its best day in six years. Place your bets accordingly, friends. Until next time… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Spotify, Apple, and Amazon as mentioned in the article.