{"id":27434,"date":"2026-08-04T15:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27434"},"modified":"2026-08-04T15:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:24:20","slug":"spotify-hits-300-million-premium-subscribers-in-q2-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27434","title":{"rendered":"Spotify Hits 300 Million Premium Subscribers in Q2 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/spotify\/\" id=\"auto-tag_spotify\" data-tag=\"spotify\">Spotify<\/a>\u2018s Premium customers grew to 300 million in the second quarter of 2026, after the music streamer gained 7 million paying subscribers, exceeding its previous guidance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tTotal monthly active users, including those on the free, ad-supported tier, stood at 777 million as of the end of Q2. That slightly undershot previous guidance of 778 million, which the company attributed to ongoing \u201cproduct optimizations\u201d in the quarter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFor Q2, the company reported revenue of \u20ac4.78 billion, up 14% and in line with its forecast. Operating income came in at \u20ac655 million and gross margin hit an all-time high of 33.4% (above previous guidance of \u20ac630 million and 33.1%, respectively). Net income was \u20ac545 million, compared with a net loss of -\u20ac86 million in the year-ago period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSubscription revenue in the quarter grew 15% to \u20ac4.33 billion, while ad revenue inched up 1% to \u20ac446 million. Spotify said the improvement in gross margin in Q2 was driven by Premium gains (as revenue growth outpaced music costs net of marketplace programs, audiobooks costs and video podcast costs). On the ad-supported side, gains were driven by \u201cfavorable podcast and tax impacts, which more than offset music costs\u201d and other costs of revenue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFor Q3, Spotify expects revenue of \u20ac5.0 billion, operating income of \u20ac670 million and gross margin of 32.9%. It projects Premium subscribers of 305 million and total monthly active users of 788 million (implying the addition of approximately 11 million net new MAUs in the quarter).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSpotify called out the launch of new initiatives in Q2 including Reserved in the U.S., which gives an artist\u2019s most dedicated fans exclusive early access to concert tickets, and Personal Podcasts, letting users generate personalized AI-powered audio episodes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn Tuesday alongside the Q2 earnings results, Spotify announced a new agreement with Merlin for Spotify\u2019s upcoming fan-made covers and remixing tool, which gives artists on labels under Merlin\u2019s Spotify agreement the option to participate. As previously announced, Spotify\u2019s tool will launch as a paid add-on, which \u201cwill create an additional revenue stream for participating artists,\u201d the streamer said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSpotify co-CEO Alex Norstr\u00f6m said in announcing the results, \u201cWe 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 lives across your whole day \u2014 the commute, the workout, studying, gaming, the dinner table, and sleep. At our scale, that is rare\u2026 Our position gives us an opportunity space as wide as our users want it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCo-CEO Gustav S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m added, \u201cThis 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\u2026 Our job remains the same: understand the technology early and deeply, and turn it into something people love. Creating value for our stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spotify\u2018s Premium customers grew to 300 million in the second quarter of 2026, after the music streamer gained 7 million paying subscribers, exceeding its previous guidance. Total monthly active users, including those on the free, ad-supported tier, stood at 777 million as of the end of Q2. That slightly undershot previous guidance of 778 million,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Spotify.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}