Music Business

Spotify Passes 217M Active Users, Revenue Per User Slips

image from mms.businesswire.comUPDATED: Spotify's monthly active users grew 26% over the last year to 217 million at the end of 2018, the streamer reported on Monday. Now in 79 countries, a February launch in India added 2 million to its global total. Overall, Spotify posted a smaller first-quarter loss of $158 million vs $189 million for the same period last year.

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MAUs By Region

 

Premium Subscribers grew to 100 million, up 32% year on year. The growth was attributed to a "better than plan" promotion in the US and Canada and continued strong growth in Family Plan. The streamer also reported growth from the expansion of a free Google Home Mini promotion to Europe, a price reduction to the Spotify Premium + Hulu offering in the US and an expanded global partnership with Samsung.

Subscription churn was flat Q1.

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subscribers by region

Total Q1 revenue was $1,685 million, up 33% year over year. Premium revenue was $1545 million in Q1 up 34% year on year, the third quarter of accelerating Y/Y growth in the last four quarters. image from mms.businesswire.com

In the all important metric of average revenue per user, results were a bit less rosey, down down 2% excluding the impact from foreign exchange rates, or flat if after accounting for a currency bump. Downward pressure on ARPU has moderated, according to Spotify, who predicts that ARPU declines through the remainder of the year will be in the low single digits.

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"The declines in ARPU are a result of shifts in both product and geographic mix," according to Spotify.  "Approximately 75% of the impact to ARPU is attributable to product mix changes, and the remainder a function of changes in geographic mix and other factors."  

Ad-Supported revenue growth under performed expectations in Q1, particularly in the US. Even though ad supported revenue grew 24% Y/Y to $140.5, it was outpaced by growth in the number of ad-supported users.  Spotify predicts that revenue from podcasts should accelerate through 2019. helping future numbers.

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