Advertising has allowed Spotify to attract a record number of listeners. Shares soared 15%

Swedish audio streaming service Spotify attracted a much larger audience than analysts expected last quarter, setting a corporate record for the number of connections in a single quarter, Bloomberg writes.

In particular, 38 million new listeners were added to the platform in the fourth quarter of 2025, bringing the service's total audience to 751 million. This figure exceeded the average analysts' forecast of 745.2 million, the agency notes.

Spotify attributed this result to the successful pre-holiday advertising campaign Wrapped, which allows you to share your most listened-to artists and tracks on social networks. An additional growth factor was the global launch of an improved free version of the service, Bloomberg notes.

Against this background, the company's shares jumped by more than 15% at the pre-market on February 10. At the time of publication, they have slightly corrected and are trading in the plus side of the previous close by 13.7%.

- Spotify also projected first-quarter 2026 earnings above Wall Street estimates, noting that the figure would be due to strong audience growth and price increases, Reuters writes. Spotify raised the price of its Premium monthly subscription by $1 - to $12.99 - in the U.S., Estonia and Latvia markets this year, following a similar move in more than 150 countries in 2025.

- In addition, the company said it expects operating profit of €660 million ($786.13 million) in the first quarter of 2026 - above analysts' average forecast of €652.3 million, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. The forecast for quarterly revenue of €4.5 billion was slightly below estimates of €4.57 billion.

- The company's audience forecast for the first quarter of 2026 at 759 million monthly active users exceeded analysts' estimate of 753 million, while the expectation for Premium subscribers to grow by 3 million to 293 million was below consensus.

- Revenue for the fourth quarter rose 7% to €4.53 billion, matching market expectations, the agency wrote. Although higher prices in a number of markets and cost cuts supported earnings in the December quarter, the company's revenue growth was the slowest since going public in 2018, Reuters notes.

- Gross profit increased by 10% year-on-year - on the back of a 10% reduction in operating expenses. Gross margin increased to 33.1% compared to 31.6% in the previous quarter.

In recent months, Spotify has launched new features that expand audience control over the service, including tools for self-service music selection. In particular, the company's streaming platform has introduced an AI-powered "prompted playlist" feature that creates playlists based on text requests, taking into account the user's context and listening history. In addition, the service introduced music videos in the U.S. last December and became one of the few platforms where Taylor Swift's new video premiered last week.

Of the 46 analysts covering Spotify stock, the majority - 38 - advise buying it. The remaining eight are neutral and recommend holding them in the portfolio. The average target price on the company's securities suggests a potential upside of 48.4% relative to the closing price on February 9.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor