Spotify reports total fourth-quarter revenue topping $5.3 billion and a record growth in listeners
In a historic gain, Spotify saw a record increase of 38 million monthly active users at the end of 2025.
According to the streamer’s fourth-quarter earnings report released Tuesday, the Sweden-based company reported an 11% increase in monthly active users, bringing the total to 751 million. It’s the biggest net add in the company’s history. There was similarly a 10% increase in paid subscribers, rising to 290 million. Spotify’s total revenue also topped $5.3 billion, up 7%.
The company credits much of last quarter’s success to what it says was its biggest Wrapped campaign yet, which engaged 300 million users globally and had 630 million shares in 56 different languages. Spotify also expanded and enhanced tech features globally, like adding music videos and more access to audiobooks, for both premium and free subscribers.
“Today, what we’ve really built is a technology platform for audio — and increasingly, for all the ways creators connect with audiences. And this identity will matter even more going forward,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify’s founder and executive chairman, in a press release.
“The next wave of technology shifts — AI, new interfaces, wearables, new ways of interacting with content — these will reshape how people discover and experience audio and media. The hard problems ahead — in music, in podcasts, in books, in video, in live, and in things we haven’t built yet — we’re going to keep building the technology to solve them.”
The company’s operating income rose 47% to $834 million. At the end of the fourth quarter, there were 7,323 full-time employees globally.
Spotify’s ad-supported revenue was down 4%, with the company looking at a partial “offset by softness in pricing” for its music advertising. Its podcasts’ expansion was led mostly by sponsorships. But the revenue was similarly “offset by optimization of our podcasting inventory.”
Just in the last few months, Spotify has focused heavily on its podcasting services — in part by opening a new Hollywood studio, expanding creator monetization programs and premiering select video podcasts on Netflix in a new partnership.
On the music side, the streaming platform previously reported that it paid out more than $11 billion to the music industry last year. That sum was the “largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history,” according to Spotify.
When the music streaming business model was first introduced, there was controversy about how much artists would earn from streams. But the company said independent artists and labels accounted for half of all royalties.
Founded in 2006, the company maintains a large presence in L.A.’s Arts District. Over the last two decades, it has become the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service. Beyond its music library, it now reports having more than 530,000 video podcasts and over 500,000 audiobooks in English-language markets.
Starting this month, Spotify also raised its prices for premium users to $12.99. For the first quarter of 2026, the company expects an increase of 8 million monthly active users, bringing its total closer to 759 million users and a smaller, 3-million bump in paying users. The company projects total revenue to stay consistent at around $5.3 billion.