Spotify hits 433 million monthly active users riding on India growth

New Delhi: Riding on better-than-expected performance in the Indian market, Swedish music-streaming platform Spotify on Wednesday said it now has 433 million monthly active users (MAUs), up 19 million (year-on-year) and above the company's guidance by 5 million. Spotify's premium subscribers grew 14 percent to 188 million in the April-June quarter, up from 182 million in Q1. "Quarterly performance versus our guidance was impacted by outperformance in India, Indonesia, and The Philippines as a result of marketing campaigns and elevated OEM intake," the company said in a statement.

The company said that excluding its impact from Russia exit and the "service outage benefit" it experienced in March, it added 19 million MAUs in the quarter which is its largest quarter in history. Its net loss in the quarter was $197 million on revenue of $2.9 billion. (Also Read: Gold price down by over Rs 130, Check rates of yellow metal in your city)

The company said that it now hosts 4.4 million podcasts on the platform, and "the number of MAUs that engaged with podcasts grew in the substantial double-digits year on year and per user podcast consumption rates continued to rise." (Also Read: Zomato shares up nearly 7% as analysts project bigger order volumes)

The company said that advertising revenue grew 31 percent to reach 13 percent of total revenue, reflecting growth across all regions and sales channels. "Our music business saw healthy double-digit growth and podcast revenue grew in the strong double-digit range led by the Spotify Audience Network," the company informed.

In June, Spotify announced plans to slow headcount growth by 25 percent beginning in Q3, while also taking a closer look at marketing activity. "While we continue to monitor the uncertain macro environment, we are very pleased with the resilience of the business, particularly our strength in MAUs and subscribers," said the company.