Spotify Reports Strong Subscriber Growth, Big Q2 Loss

Spotify is enjoying a modest bump on Wall Street on Thursday following its Q2 earnings report, despite its mounting losses with the music streaming giant reporting better-than-expected subscriber figures.

The Stockholm-based company reported 83 million premium paid subscribers, beating analyst estimates of 82 million. Spotify said it now has more than 180 million monthly active users.

About 31 percent of Spotify’s users, or 56 million streamers, come from North America, according to the company. It’s chief rival, Apple Music, has 50 million users, CEO Tim Cook said in May.

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Spotify’s share price has jumped 2.75 percent in early morning trading, touching $193 a share — which would mark a new all-time high for the company if it holds through the closing bell.

The strong subscriber numbers offset its financials. Spotify’s €1.27 billion ($1.49 billion) in revenue was in-line with Wall Street’s estimates, but the company missed big on its earnings, posting a loss of €2.20 per share compared to analyst projections of  €0.68.

Spotify doesn’t appear to be on the verge of becoming profitable anytime soon, with net losses doubling in the last year to €394 million ($461 million).

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CFO Barry McCarthy said in a call on Thursday that Spotify’s revenue hit a “short-term hiccup” with the implementation of new EU data privacy laws, but that it wouldn’t impact the company long term. CEO Daniel Ek said podcasts were “growing really, really fast” on the call, but added the company wasn’t focused on video content, at least for now.