Spotify now has 172 million paid subscribers and 381 million monthly active users, an increase from last quarter.
Spotify continues to be the go-to music streaming service. Amazon Music and Apple Music trail far behind with paid subscribers. Spotify expects to have in excess of 400 million monthly active users, and over 177 million premium subscribers by the end of the year.
Because Spotify pays the majority of its revenue back to music labels, it couldn’t make a profit. But after years of losing money, the streaming music service is turning the corner, mainly because of its ad business.
Ownership of song catalogs gives the music labels big leverage in cutting deals with streaming companies. Spotify added content like podcasts that doesn’t that music labels don’t own which has drawn more listeners.