Spotify crosses 300 million users after successful Russia launch

Spotify now has 320 million monthly active users and 144 million paid subscribers.

Spotify said the user growth was driven by marketing campaigns in India as well as their launch in Russia and 12 other surrounding markets. Spotify called Russia its most successful new market launch till date. (Bloomberg)

In its latest earnings release, Spotify announced that the platform now has 320 million monthly active users and 144 million paid subscribers. This is an increase of 29% and 27% respectively year-on-year in each category. Spotify said the user growth was driven by marketing campaigns in India as well as their launch in Russia and 12 other surrounding markets. Spotify called Russia its most successful new market launch till date.

The new user and subscriber numbers put Spotify well ahead of its rivals - Apple and Amazon. In January this year, Amazon Music had 55 million customers out of which “nearly all” were paying subscribers, according to reports. Apple had reported 60 million paying subscribers last year and the company does not have any free tiers besides some that are a part of promotions and free trials.

The new user and subscriber numbers put Spotify well ahead of its rivals - Apple and Amazon. (Spotify)

The new user and subscriber numbers put Spotify well ahead of its rivals - Apple and Amazon. (Spotify)

While Spotify reported a sizable user growth and a revenue growth of 1 to €1.98 billion (around $2.32 billion), it still made a loss of €101 million (around $118 million) in the quarter, down from a profit of €241 million ($282 million) a year earlier, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This happened partly because the company is trying to grow its user base by luring new users in with discounted plans. Revenue per user dropped 10% to €4.19 (around $4.92) as compared to last year.

Spotify now has 1.9 million podcasts available on its service, up from more than 1.5 million it had in the last quarter. Spotify said that 22% of its monthly users engaged with podcast content in Q3, up from 21% in Q2.

And speaking of podcasts, the Joe Rogan Experience is now Spotify's most popular podcast across its English-speaking markets, the company said. The Rogan show has recently been criticised for interviewing Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. 

In an internal email seen by Buzzfeed News a senior Spotify executive defended the decision, and said that it was important to host “diverse voices” on its platform. Spotify has said that the Joe Rogan Experience will become a Spotify exclusive by the end of this year.