Spotify's growth looks like a victory lap, hits 750 million monthly users

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: Spotify closed out 2025 on a strong note, adding more monthly actively users than during any other point in the company's history. As the calendar rolled over, the streaming music giant had 290 million Premium (paying) subscribers – an increase of 10 percent compared to the same period a year earlier – and a total of 751 million MAUs – up 11 percent year-over-year.

For the fourth quarter of 2025, Spotify generated €4.5 billion ($5.4 billion) in total revenue – a six percent increase quarter-over-quarter and up seven percent compared to the same period in 2024. Gross margin reached 33.1 percent, and operating income of €701 million exceeded expectations due to lower than anticipated social charges.

Spotify said it paid out more than $11 billion to the music industry last year, which it claims is the largest annual payment to creators from any retailer in history. The streaming platform also helped drive more than $1 billion in ticket sales to live shows through its ticketing partners, and experienced its largest Wrapped year-in-review event ever with more than 300 million engaged users and north of 630 million shares on social across nearly 60 different languages.

Credit: App Economy Insights

The streaming specialist made strides in several different areas in 2025, and is carrying on the momentum into the New Year. The company is now rolling out music videos in beta to Premium users in the US and Canada, and is expanding its partner program into Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, which will provide creators in those regions with new ways to connect with fans.

Shares in Spotify are currently trading at $478.74, up more than 15 percent on the day.

Spotify was founded in 2006 and helped pioneer the concept of streaming music over purchasing and downloading individual tracks and albums. Growth was somewhat slow initially and revenue was hard to come by but as wireless technology matured and the smartphone revolution got under way, Spotify really came into its own. Today, Spotify is the biggest player in the space.

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Spotify's growth looks like a victory lap, hits 750 million monthly users

 

[NumberNine]

Jack Stratton is somewhere quietly weeping.

 

[bviktor]

This is the same company that sued Apple at the EU for ruining their profits, correct? Poor fellas.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Ironic. I just canceled Spotify today before yet another price increase kicked in.

Took a little work to gather my old CD rips and download all my purchased songs, but now I'm back to 100% control and ownership with Plex handling streaming for me. Their music app is a bit basic, but I already was using Plex for my ripped DVDs/BRs so it was an easy add.

 

[Alpine7995]

The most Spotify thing ever is bragging about driving $1 billion in ticket sales while Ticketmaster is out here charging $50 in fees on a $75 concert ticket. Like congrats on helping fans get absolutely fleeced I guess? At least the Wrapped feature is still fire though, that 630 million shares number is insane. Nothing unites humanity quite like collectively oversharing our questionable music taste every December.

 

[airbornex]

751 million monthly active users and only 290 million are actually paying for it. That's a 61% freeloading rate lmao. I've been using the free version for like 8 years now and honestly the ads aren't even that bad anymore.

 

[p51d007]

751 million monthly active users and only 290 million are actually paying for it. That's a 61% freeloading rate lmao. I've been using the free version for like 8 years now and honestly the ads aren't even that bad anymore.

Oh the hoots and howls from some of the spotify hack threads on reddit.
Someone comes up with a hack to get premium for free, and 5-10 days later, spotify releases an update which breaks it. The cat & mouse game because people don't realize spotify has people on reddit too!

 

[Beerfloat]

I don't bother with Spotify. Youtube Music gives pretty much the same catalog and I never see any Youtube adds anymore. That's a lot more valuable to me.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

751 million monthly active users and only 290 million are actually paying for it. That's a 61% freeloading rate lmao. I've been using the free version for like 8 years now and honestly the ads aren't even that bad anymore.

You know it’s not freeloading because of the ads right? It’s how most of the internet makes money.

 

[MasterAce]

Wonder how much these numbers are skewed with all the fake artists with AI copy music and bot farming. Seems like most people have come across a fake artist these days.

 

[whateversa]

I wonder how much they spent on their AI DJ thing.. I personally could not stand it.

 

[TooQik]

I purchase through HD Tracks and Qobuz, have ripped all my CDs, and use Jellyfin for access for all my music needs.

 

[daffy duck]

Streaming sucks, I've already paid for all my music, I have ripped my entire cd library and have ad-free, interruption free music all the time and don't have to worry about sh!thouse connectivity issues living in a rural area.