Spotify now has nearly 300M monthly active users, 138M subscribers

Spotify has today posted its latest financial results, confirming that it now has nearly 300 million monthly active users and 138 million paying subscribers.

In its latest Q2 results Spotify stated:

Our business performed well in Q2 and continues to operate at a high level despite the continuing uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Excluding the impact of social charges related to the increase in our share price during Q2, all of our key metrics would have finished at or ahead of our expectations. Our liquidity position and Free Cash Flow remain strong, and we are encouraged with the underlying trends of the business.

As mentioned, the results show Spotify now boasts 299 million monthly active users, a 29% increase on last year. It also now has 138 million Premium Subscribers, up 27% on this time last year. Both of those figures meet the top end of Spotify's Premium guidance.

Reflecting on the pandemic, Spotify says that listening activity has now returned to pre-COVID levels everywhere except in Latin America, where listening is down around 6%.

Despite growing figures, Spotify's ad revenue fell by 21%, as COVID-19 continues to impact the sector. As CNBC notes, Spotify made a net loss of around 356 million euros, worse than analysts had feared. This wider loss was "due mostly to social charges", taxes paid in Sweden. Spotify says the "higher-than-expected" charges relate to strong gains in Spotify's stock price and came in 126 million euros higher than planned. Spotify is required to pay a 31.42% to the Swedish government on any profit an employee makes when exercising stock options or vesting restricted stock units.