Spotify Pamer Has 195 Million Paid Users, But Disappointed Shareholders

Spotify, which states the platform already has 195 million paid users, (photo: dock. spotify)

JAKARTA - Reports in the third quarter (Q3) in 2022 look very good for Spotify, which says the platform has 195 million paid users, an increase of 7 million since the last quarter of Q2.

The company expects to reach 200 million by the end of the year. Unfortunately, the large number of customers does not always make shareholders happy, especially when the gross margin is below expectations.

Spotify reports shares fell more than 6 percent in trading after working hours. Spotify's gross profit margin is 24.7 percent, two points lower than in the same quarter last year and under the company's previous guidance.

Spotify said this was due to unfavorable adjustments to previous period forecasts for rights holders obligations.

The fact that music is increasingly expensive explains Spotify's push to the podcasting business. There are now 4.7 million podcasts available on the platform, up from 4.4 million on Q2. While the podcast business is still not profitable enough for Spotify, the company is seeing double-digit growth in podcast revenue.

Launching XDA Developers, Thursday, October 27, recently, Spotify has also started a new business by offering audiobooks in the United States (US). This service provides more than 300,000 books, but audiobooks are not part of the streaming service, which requires users to buy every title if they want to listen to it.

As far as Spotify's future goes, it's likely that its HiFi subscription package could debut sometime next year. The service was mysteriously suspended for no reason, but recently the company was caught distributing it to Spotify subscribers as a trial.

HiFi is claimed to be present as a Platinum package. The Platinum package can cost $ 19.99, equivalent to IDR 300 thousand per month by offering other facilities such as Audio Insights, Tuner Headphone, Library Pro, Playlist Pro, and Studio Sound.