Spotify subscribers hit 205 million in Q4 2022, a 14% increase year on year, according to its recently released Q4 2022 financial results. Monthly Active Users (MAU) increased 20% to 489 million. Revenue of €3166 million was up 18% year on year in the quarter. The streamer also showed strong growth in its ad-supported revenue of €449 million up 14% from a year before led by Podcasting gains. Despite these impressive growth figures the company continues to be a loss maker posting a €231 million loss for the quarter. Forecasts for Q1 2023 show continuing losses (€194 million) and some of this is put down to expenses incurred as part of reducing its global workforce by 6% (about 600 employees). There was no mention of plans to increase subscription prices or when we might see the rollout of the long awaited Lossless streaming. However, they have announced a 2023 Stream On event which is scheduled for the 8th March 2023 – the first one since 2021 – and it is likely that this will be an opportunity to present new features.
Key highlights in Q4 2022
- Users engaging with the 8th annual year-end Spotify Wrapped campaign grew 30% year on year across 111 markets
- Expanded the ‘paid for’ Audiobooks availability to the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand
- Rolled out 4 million+ podcasts to South Korea
- Acquired Kinzen – an online safety company which uses a mixture of human expertise and machine learning to detect harmful language in 28 languages
- Subscriber growth in the Rest of the World (excludes the Americas and Europe) led by India and Indonesia outperformed the average due to successful marketing campaigns and OEM strength
- Strong growth amongst Gen Z listeners
Spotify’s forecast for Q1 2023
- Total MAUs: 500 million
- Total Premium Subscribers: 207 million
- Total Revenue: €3.1 Bn
- Operating Loss: €194 million
To view the complete set of financial results for Q4 2022 go here.
