Spotify rode a strong second quarter where it hit a major milestone and now has 300 million paid premium subscribers of its 777 million total user base as revenue in the period increased to $5.5 billion.
In its earnings report on Tuesday, the music streaming giant said a 7 million new subscriber boost pushed it to the new benchmark with the 14 percent climb in revenue over the same point last year largely in line with its estimates for the quarter, which ended on June 30.
“We have a scale that few companies in history have reached, a business that is healthy and compounding, and opportunities only we are positioned to pursue,” Spotify CEO Alex Norström said. “Spotify lives across your whole day — the commute, the workout, studying, gaming, the dinner table and sleep. At our scale, that is rare. Our position gives us an opportunity space as wide as our users want it to be.”
The company also reported that its premium subscribers grew 9 percent over the same period in 2025 and ended the first quarter at around 293 million. Still, the 777 million monthly active users is a 12 percent boost but just under the 778 million listeners that Spotify projected for the end of the second quarter.
Operating income landed at $754 million in the quarter which is up 61 percent from the same point last year even as the company said a 3 percent rise in its operating expenses tied directly to “investments in marketing and cloud/AI spend.”
“Investor Day described where we believe Spotify is going in the future,” Spotify Co-CEO Gustav Söderström said. “This quarter demonstrated that we are already building that future: better engineering, faster shipping, new products and new ways for users to engage. We are still in the very early stages of what is possible and will continue to have a high bar for investments.”
Meanwhile, the brand is banking on new features like its recently announced the Running Mode section of the platform that tailors tempo and taste specifically for runners. In April, Spotify introduced more than 1,400 classes alongside Peloton that users can easily tap into inside of the Fitness Hub.
The company said it forecasts nearly $5.8 billion in revenue in the third quarter on $773 million in operating income along with a boost in premium subscribers at 305 million. Spotify predicts that its total monthly active users will rise to 788 million.
Spotify also announced on Tuesday that it is teaming with music licensing company Merlin to allow users to create “fan-made covers” with AI its remixing tool that was unveiled in May.
Merlin represents over 30,000 independent labels and now joins Universal Music Group in putting its support behind Spotify’s remixing and song covers concept.
“Giving our members’ artists the choice to make their music available as part of this exciting technology, while ensuring the opportunity to participate in an additional revenue stream, is exactly what Merlin is here to do,” Merlin CEO Charlie Lexton said. “Spotify’s respect for our members’ and their artists’ rights is exemplary, making our decision to work on this project an easy one.”
