In the third quarter of 2025, Spotify shattered expectations by reporting 713 million active monthly users, a striking 11% year-on-year increase. This figure exceeded the projected 710.6 million, signalling strong momentum for the platform.
The user growth was underpinned by a roughly 9% increase in subscription prices across multiple regions: South Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Despite this, global subscriber numbers continued to climb, illustrating the platform’s ability to raise prices while still expanding its user base.
Revenue for the period rose by 7% to €4.27 billion (about US$4.9 billion). More remarkably, Spotify recorded an operating income of €582 million, which is a 43% leap compared to the same quarter last year, and net profit soared to €899 million, reversing a prior €86 million loss. On the downside, ad-supported revenue slipped by 6%, attributed to pricing pressure in the advertising business.
In a statement, CEO Daniel Ek remarked: “We have the tools we need: pricing, product innovation, operational leverage, and eventually the ads turnaround to deliver both revenue growth and profit expansion.” Meanwhile, Spotify announced a forthcoming leadership change. Ek will become executive chairman beginning in 2026, while a dual-CEO structure led by Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström will take the helm.
The company also revealed it employed 7,323 full-time staff worldwide at the end of Q3. On the product and advertising front, Spotify expanded its automated ad ecosystem through a partnership with Amazon DSP, enabling advertisers to tap Spotify’s global audio and video inventory. The integration reportedly boosted conversion rates and lowered cost per action by up to 90% in some segments.
Spotify’s subscriber growth and pricing power reflect broader service-economy trends, underscoring how digital platforms drive intangible-asset leaps rather than just physical output. As streaming giants scale, they boost global digital-commerce flows, contribute to intangible-investment growth, and influence consumer spending, shifting the economic balance from goods to services in global GDP composition.
