Today, Spotify announced our first quarter 2023 financial performance, showing outperformance across nearly all key performance metrics. Take a look at the highlights below:
We had our strongest Q1 since going public in 2018, with nearly all our KPIs surpassing expectations:
Monthly Active Users grew by 22% year-over-year to 515 million driven by strength in both developed and developing markets, and nearly all age groups.
Premium Subscribers grew 15% year-over-year to 210 million with outperformance across all regions, led by Europe and Latin America.
Total Revenue grew 14% year-over-year to €3.0 billion, led by Subscriber gains.
Gross Margin finished at 25.2%, reflecting improved music and podcast profitability.
Operating (Loss)/Income finished at €(156) million, aided by lower marketing spend.
Interested in hearing more? Click here to review the full earnings release and listen to the webcast Q&A on our Investor Relations site here.
Click below to check out a sizzle reel of audio trailers from a few of our recent original and exclusive podcasts.
Today at Spotify Stream On, artists, songwriters, podcasters, and authors from around the world joined us for a day of announcements and inspiration. They also took part in hands-on demonstrations of tools and resources coming from Spotify, including new ways for artists to connect with fans and hype their work using Spotify for Artists.
Countdown Pages
Building buzz for an album release requires artists and their teams to work across multiple platforms and services, resulting in a disconnect between where music is being teased and where music is actually being streamed.
The most powerful time to reach fans is when they’ve chosen to engage with music, ahem, on Spotify. That’s why we’ve built a new tool called Countdown Pages.
Countdown Pages are dedicated spaces for artists to build anticipation for new albums. On Countdown Pages, fans can watch exclusive video clips, pre-save the upcoming release, preview the track list, and watch the timer count down to the release moment.
Plus, fans who pre-save an album release will receive a notification as soon as the release drops. We’ll also automatically add the album to a listener’s library, ensuring that more fans start streaming on day one. In early tests, on average, over 80% of pre-savers streamed the new release within the first week.
Want to check out a Countdown Page? Visit Ed Sheeran’s artist profile on your Spotify mobile app and scroll down to the Upcoming Releases section to pre-save his forthcoming album “–”.
We could not be more excited to bring Countdown Pages to life—but we don’t want to limit artists’ video options to Countdown Pages. So, we’re making them available in more places where music lives on Spotify.
Artists can add under-30-second videos to their album pages or their artist profiles. That way, new listeners and existing fans can go deeper into an artist’s stories while they’re listening. We call these videos Spotify Clips.
With Clips, new listeners will be able to get to know an artist and their music better, while loyal fans will be able to dive even deeper into an artist’s music, forging even stronger connections. The possibilities are expansive, with Clips enabling artists to build excitement for an unreleased song, promote a new album or single, tell the story behind a song, and much more. We’re unlocking this feature for thousands of artists this week, and we’ll be opening it up to more and more artists in waves throughout the spring.
From high-energy reggaetón to soulful pop, today’s Latin music is diverse, catchy, and impossible to pin down. Its beats and sounds pull from influences across the globe as Latinx creators continue to push the genre to new heights. And it resonates with Spotify listeners, who, in 2020 alone, streamed nearly 11 billion hours of Latin music worldwide.
Capturing and amplifying the vibrant scene is Spotify’s flagship Latin music playlist, Viva Latino. Since its launch in 2014, the playlist has been a staple that houses the genre’s most exciting new tracks. As a result, over the last seven years, the catchy collection has grown to 11.3 million followers, making it the third-most-followed playlist on Spotify globally and the biggest Latin music playlist on the platform. The playlist’s rise mirrored a platform-wide trend: Latin music consumption grew by 1,680% during the same period.
Spotify is celebrating the evolution and impactful playlist—and the many artists and fans who have grown alongside it—throughout November. We kicked off a playlist campaign featuring a refreshed tagline, Elevando Nuestra Música, or “Elevating Our Music,” alongside an updated look. Miami, Los Angeles, and New York City residents will notice the playlist highlighted across each city, and listeners around the world will find even more videos and updates online. That includes a campaign video featuring three of Latin music’s biggest stars: artists KAROL G, Myke Towers, and Mau y Ricky, who joined forces to show Viva Latino’s accompanying role in everything from commuting to working out. Spotify also partnered with Latinx TikTok content creators Sofia Bella, Alexia Del Valle, and Jayla Milan, who shared their unique perspectives on what the playlist, the artists, and the songs mean to them.
Viva Latino was created around the wants and needs of Latin music fans who, based on Spotify data, discover 46% more music than the average listener. Since then, the global playlist has kept fans engaged with a blend of today’s top songs and the trending hits of tomorrow. And now, for many listeners, these tracks have become a soundtrack for everyday life.
The playlist has had a major impact on Latinx creators, too. That’s because Viva Latino features not only the biggest names in the Latin Music scene, but those just launching their music careers, too. It’s given many emerging artists a boost as engaged listeners propel their favorite Spanish-language songs to the Global Top 100 and Top 50 charts.
KAROL G, Myke Towers, and Mau y Ricky have each experienced the playlist’s impact firsthand. Rounding out the campaign, all three reflected on their first song to be featured on Viva Latino and the doors that opened for them in Spotify Clips, exclusive video clips on the platform.
“Latin music has become an indispensable part of pop culture, and we’re excited to see Viva Latino play a big role in that evolution,” shared Antonio Vázquez, Head of U.S. Latin Editorial at Spotify. “We’re celebrating the artists and fans who make this the ultimate destination for Latin hits by unveiling a sophisticated new look for the playlist that steers away from stereotypical cultural symbols, as well as introducing an inclusive tagline, Elevando Nuestra Música, a mission that pushes and motivates us to take our music to the global stage.”
Seven years after its debut, Viva Latino remains as essential as ever. As creators and fans look to the future, we’re excited that this is just the beginning.
Step into the future and elevate your day with the refreshed Viva Latino playlist now.
In 1981, Swedish pop sensation and Eurovision winner ABBA issued their last studio album. That is, until now.
Today, Agnetha, Benny, Björn, and Anni-Frid unveiled new music for the first time in four decades: a double A-side single with two brand-new songs, “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down.”
But that’s not the only surprise from ABBA. Today, the band shared that they’d be making virtual avatars of themselves for a live concert experience in London known as ABBA Voyage—as well as releasing a new album, Voyage on November 5.
ABBA Voyage, the long-awaited concert, will feature ABBA’s avatars accompanied by a 10-piece live band in a custom-built arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. These avatars were created based on the live recordings by the band members in present day and then digitally edited to create an appearance of the band onstage the way they were 40 years ago. It gives long-term fans a chance to see their favorite band the way they remember and new fans a chance to glimpse the group in their prime. The concert will feature 22 songs, including some of the band’s greatest hits and their two new songs out today, and last 1.5 hours.
Now though, fans can “take a chance” early and head to the This Is ABBA playlist on Spotify, which has been updated with the two new songs as well as 11 Spotify Clips—exclusive video clips in which Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA tells the story of the band’s reunion, reflects on friendship, and provides insights into what’s to come.
For a sneak peek, watch below as Björn shares some insight about the concert, as well as the “craziest idea” the band has ever had.
The Winner Takes It All
ABBA has a legacy that is largely unmatched. The pop group, known for belt-worthy lyrics and dance floor, disco-esque beats, boasts two songs in the top 100 most-streamed songs from the ’70s on Spotify—“Dancing Queen,” which falls in the top 20, and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).”
And their reach is universal: The top countries for streaming ABBA are the U.S. and U.K., followed by Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, the band’s home country of Sweden, and Mexico. To date, more than 45 million user-created playlists on Spotify contain at least one ABBA song.
Knowing Me, Knowing You
ABBA listeners, however, may not be who you think they are. Though the band was at its peak in the ’70s and ’80s, its base on Spotify skews younger. People ages 18 to 24 stream the band the most on Spotify, and they’ve been streaming more every year—increasing their listening by over 50% since 2014. It’s clear that ABBA’s songs transcend their time to become lasting favorites—not only for the generation that first fell in love with them, but for those who came after.
Still can’t get enough? Dig in with the top 10 most-streamed ABBA songs on Spotify, which you can find alongside the exclusive videos from Björn on the This Is ABBA playlist.
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