Spotify Increases Streaming Users Amid Industry Competition
Music streaming service Spotify has successfully increased the number of users streaming music, podcasts, and audiobooks on its platform, despite facing growing competition within the streaming sector.
In the final quarter of 2025, paid rs rose by 9 million, reaching a total of 290 million. This growth contributed to a net profit of €1.17 billion, according to Spotify's financial results published on Tuesday.
While the Swedish company reported paying nearly $11 billion to artists, criticism persists regarding the adequacy of payments made to musicians for hosting their songs on the platform.
User Engagement and Spotify Wrapped
Spotify's total user base exceeds 750 million, including both paying and non-paying rs. Each user receives a personalized summary of their listening habits at the end of the year.
The company emphasized its "Spotify Wrapped" feature as a key tool for user engagement.
"Our 11th annual Wrapped was bigger, bolder and more layered than ever, celebrating fans, artists, creators and authors around the world," Spotify stated in its financial report. "Wrapped had more than 300 million engaged users and more than 630 million shares on social media globally in 56 languages."
Innovation and Future Focus
Chief Executive Gustav Söderström described Spotify as the research and development arm of the music industry, focusing on innovations in audio technology such as integrating video into podcasts and supporting music created with artificial intelligence (AI).
"Our job is to understand new technologies quickly and capture their potential, which we've done time and again," Söderström said. "The entire industry stands to benefit from this [AI] paradigm shift but we believe those who embrace this change and move fast, will benefit the most."
Ongoing Royalty Disputes and Artist Boycotts
The recent revenue figures were released amid ongoing debates regarding the royalties paid to artists and songwriters. Several artists boycotted a Spotify event in 2025, and Taylor Swift notably withheld her music from the platform for three years, citing insufficient compensation.
Spotify attributed part of its user growth to the expansion of audio e-books, while acknowledging future challenges.
"The hard problems ahead – in music, in podcasts, in books, in video, in live, and in things we haven't built yet – we're going to keep building the technology to solve them," the company said.
The band Massive Attack recently joined the boycott, criticizing Spotify as an "economic burden" on artists and accusing the platform of using fans' money to support "lethal, dystopian technologies."
Financial Performance and Market Reaction
Spotify reported total revenue of $4.5 billion in the last quarter of 2025.
Following the release of these financial results, Spotify's shares increased by approximately 15% in trading.
