Spotify now has over 300M subscribers
In Brief Spotify has zoomed past 300 million subscribers for the first time, the company said on Tuesday. The streaming service also reached 777 million
In Brief Spotify has zoomed past 300 million subscribers for the first time, the company said on Tuesday. The streaming service also reached 777 million monthly active users in the second quarter, 12% more than a year earlier. Notably, the company saw its subscriber base swell by 9% in the quarter despite raising subscription prices in several regions this year. The platform has tried to diversify its offerings by introducing fitness content, narrations of magazines, integrating concert ticket sales, and even selling physical books.
The company reported quarterly revenue of €4.8 billion ($5.52 billion), up 14% from a year earlier. Spotify has focused strongly on building AI features in the last few months. It has released tools to create personalized podcasts based on content from different sources. It even launched a NotebookLM-like feature as an experimental desktop app in May. The streaming service has also added AI-powered Q&A and briefing generation features to podcasts; partnered with ElevenLabs for an Audiobook creation tool; and struck a deal with music labels to allow users to make fan-generated remixes.
Last month, it launched a new conversational AI assistant, which lets users steer content on the app using prompts. The platform is seeing its subscriber counts grow despite increasing backlash against its hosting of AI-generated music. To appease its users, Spotify
has added a verification system for artists, and last year introduced optional labeling for AI-generated music. In the absence of effective systems for identifying AI music, users are resorting to alternative services like SoullessMusic.com and SlopTracker, 404 Media reported last month.
The BriefWire