Spotify reaches 293 million unique subscribers and record profits, but stock declines in Outlook

Audio streaming giant Spotify posted first-quarter revenue gains and ended March with 293 million paid subscribers, up from 290 million through the end of 2025. Monthly active users (MAUs) increased to 761 million from 751 million.

Management had previously expected 293 million premium subscriptions and 759 million MAU.

But the podcast company expected second-quarter earnings and premium subscribers to fall short of Wall Street expectations, and advertising trends disappointed some, sending the stock down about 12 percent in premarket trading.

Revenue growth for the quarter accelerated to 8 percent, or 14 percent on a constant currency basis, bringing the company to 4.5 billion euros. Operating income reached a record high of €715 million in the first quarter. Profitability has returned to investors’ attention after rising prices and cutting costs.

Spotify forecast operating income of 630 million euros ($736 million) for the second quarter, below analyst estimates.

Said co-CEO Alex Norstrom: “We have surpassed 760 million monthly users, thanks to the subscriber growth we were aiming for, and have seen good engagement from existing users, reactivations and new users alike. Since the global rollout of our more personalized free experience, users in key markets like the US are listening and watching more days per month. All of this reinforces our confidence in sustainable user and subscriber growth, lower activation rate, and continued progress in revenue and margin.”

Spotify co-CEO Gustav Soderström added: “We are well-positioned thanks to our large and engaged user base, deep relationships with content creators, and years of investment in personalization and infrastructure at scale. All of this together creates a platform that can seize this moment and unleash entirely new growth vectors that will enable us to scale new, previously unimaginable mountains. We see a lot of room to grow across users, formats and engagement and to expand what Spotify is and can become over time.”

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