Spotify Hits 205M Paid Subscribers, But It’s Still Losing Money – SlashGear

In its 2023 financial summary, Spotify confirmed that “Premium Subscribers grew 14% year on year to 205 million.” That’s around 10 million more Premium users than Spotify had in the third quarter of last year. The company’s total revenue grew by €3.2 billion ($3.45 billion) and ad-supported revenue grew by almost $500 million. 

Unfortunately for Spotify, losses are also up by a large amount. Spotify lost a staggering €291 million ($314 million) in the final quarter of 2022, and lost €370 million ($401 million) across 2022 as a whole. The quarter three loss alone is more than the €249 million ($270 million) Spotify lost in 2021.

Spotify’s annual report to shareholders puts a large chunk of the losses down to a 44% increase in operating expenses, mainly driven by staff increases in the “global ad sales team, platform investment, and acquisitions” departments. “Currency movements” also impacted Spotify’s bottom line, and increased advertising prices also led to the losses. “Severance related charges” could also account for up to €45 million of the company’s losses. 

Despite the eight figure losses, Spotify’s report remains optimistic. It explains that most of the investment decisions that led to the deficit were made at the back end of 2021, and that 2022 had long been labeled an “investment year.”