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There are a number of popular mobile entertainment options targeting music fans, but one brand beats the rest by a long shot — Spotify. With its 15-year-long track record and over 551 million active users, this online service is the industry leader in most countries, including the US.
Figures like these aren’t the only impressive data about this popular online platform; in fact, there are plenty of other Spotify stats that you’ll find fascinating.
Keep reading to discover more Spotify statistics on how many users are there, artists, revenue, investments, genres, competitors, and other intriguing facts.
Right off the bat, we will look at some of the most important Spotify statistics. Here are the figures you don’t want to miss.
Spotify is currently available in 184 countries and territories worldwide.
The number of people actively using Spotify each month exceeds 550 million.
Spotify earned over $12 billion in revenue in the last calendar year.
With over 18 billion streams, Spotify’s most streamed artist in 2022 was Bad Bunny.
Latest Update: Spotify Launches New Product Inspired by Last.fm
In 2024, Spotify introduced a new product that is reminiscent of Last.fm, blending music streaming with personalized music recommendations and social features.
This new platform aims to provide users with curated playlists based on their listening habits and musical preferences while also encouraging music discovery through community-driven recommendations.
Key Features:
Music Discovery: Much like Last.fm’s “scrobbling,” Spotify’s new feature will track users’ music habits, offering tailored music recommendations based on listening history and patterns.
Social Integration: Users will be able to connect with friends, follow their listening trends, and discover new tracks through social feeds, similar to Last.fm’s community-based approach.
Cross-Platform Functionality: This product integrates smoothly across Spotify’s desktop and mobile platforms, making it easy for users to engage with recommendations and socialize about music across devices.
Music Statistics: Users will receive detailed stats about their music consumption, offering insights into their top tracks, artists, and genres.
Spotify Worldwide Users Stats
According to Spotify’s Quarterly reports, there were 551 million active Spotify users worldwide per month in Q2 2023.
These figures show a monthly increase of approximately 118 million from Q2 2022. When compared with previous years, the surge in demand is even more impressive.
A table-based user overview of Spotify usage statistics in the last 5 years should help you visualize it.
Year
Users (million per month)
2018
207
2019
271
2020
345
2021
406
2022
489
Q1 2023
515
Q2 2023
551
Spotify boasted over 220 million paying users in Q2 2023, twice as many as some of its competitors.
Spotify works based on the freemium model, which means that not all of its users are paying for the service. The platform’s 2022 annual reports show that it had 205 million Premium users and 295 million ad-supported users at the end of the year.
Let’s compare the numbers over the years:
Year
Premium Subscribers (millions)
2018
96
2019
124
2020
155
2021
180
2022
205
Q1 2023
210
Q2 2023
220
Spotify Users by Region
Spotify is available in 184 out of 195 countries and territories worldwide.
However, the rest of the world proved to be the biggest overall market in Q2 2023, with dropping shares for Europe and North America (previously leaders in Q2 2019).
This action resulted in significant listener loss in each of the 2022 quarters. According to the Spotify stats, over 2 million of these subscribers were paying users.
The following Spotify stats show how pulling off the market affected the platform:
1.5 million users in Q1 2022
600,000 in Q2 2022
2.9 million in Q3 and Q4 2022
Spotify Users by Age
Gen Z made up the majority of Spotify listeners in 2022.
Past Spotify reports reveal similar results, as does the report from Q2 2023 (which indicates a “strong growth among Gen Z listeners”).
Younger generations have dominated the user base on this music streaming platform for several years, though millennials have held the lead most of the time. A 2018 USA Statista survey supports these findings, providing more information about the rest of the users.
Here’s what the data indicates:
Age
Representation (in percentage)
18–24
26%
25–34
29%
35–44
16%
45–54
11%
55+
19%
Spotify Users by Gender
Spotify currently has more female than male users.
The 2018 Statista Spotify user demographics survey mentioned above analyzed more than age metrics. It also collected interesting data that defined the platform’s audience on a gender basis.
The 2018 figures indicated the platform has more male users.
However, this trend appears to have reversed over the past five years. You can compare the differences in the table below.
2018
56% of male users
44% of female users
2021
56% of female users
44% of female users
Spotify Investment Stats
Spotify has raised more than $2.1 billion over 20 rounds of funding.
Spotify has been in the spotlight since it was founded in 2006.
Its owners, Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek, raised $21.6 million to launch the firm in 2008. Several investors, including Horizons Ventures and Goldman Sachs, contributed an additional $50 million and €11.6 million in 2009 and 2010, respectively.
Over the years, the company attracted 56 investors, reaching over $2 billion in funding. The table below comprises the most relevant data regarding Spotify investors as of today.
Year
Investors
2008
Northzone and Creandum
2009
Horizons Ventures (lead investor)
2010
Goldman Sachs (lead investor)
2011
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Accel Partners
2013
Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Gibraltar Ventures, Matt Bellamy (individual investor)
2015
Rinkelberg Capital and some of the above partners
2018
Tencent Music Entertainment
2022
ValueAct Capital
Spotify’s Acquisitions and Mergers
By 2023, Spotify acquired 27 smaller organizations and businesses.
Spotify joined forces with numerous famous brands, including giants like Uber and Tinder. However, its acquisitions drew more attention from the public.
As the company’s market capitalization increased, Spotify acquired close to 30 organizations, expanding to other increasingly popular fields like podcasting.
Quite a few of these took place during 2022, as you can see in the table below.
Date of acquisition
Acquired business
Nov 10, 2020
Megaphone (formerly Panoply Media)
Jun 17, 2021
Podz
Nov 11, 2021
Findaway
Feb 16, 2022
Chartable
Jun 12, 2022
Sonantic
Jul 12, 2022
Heardle
Oct 5, 2022
Kinzen
Spotify’s Investments
Spotify has made five significant investments since its launch.
The company’s first investment was Soundtrack Your Brand in 2015, which was worth $10.9 million.
This venture proved a huge success. According to Reuters, the company’s sales grew by 300% and 400% a year until 2017. As a result, Spotify carried on with its investing journey, putting money in DistroKid, Artory, and Sounder.fm.
Its biggest expenditure was Tencent Music Entertainment, which reportedly totaled $910 million.
Last year, the platform also made headlines after securing exclusive rights to two of the most-listened-to podcasts — the Joe Rogan Experience and Call Her Daddy. The former sold for $200 million and the latter for $60 million.
While successful in terms of audience engagement, these investments and previously-listed acquisitions largely contributed to the company’s operating expenses growth of 13% year-over-year in Q2 2023.
While speaking to shareholders in Q2 2023, Ek, Spotify’s CEO, noted that “that our investments in adding podcasts and improving our platform and user experience are paying off nicely.” This is because “this quarter netted the highest monthly active user growth in Spotify’s history”.
Spotify Statistics: Revenue
Spotify earned approximately $6.2 billion in revenue in the first half of 2023 (Q1 and Q2).
Spotify’s quarterly statistics show the company is steadily increasing its revenue. The table below illustrates the steady growth.
Year
Total Revenue (in EUR)
Q1 2022
2.7 billion
Q2 2022
2.9 billion
Q3 2022
3.0 billion
Q4 2022
3.2 billion
Q1 2o23
3.0 billion
Q2 2023
3.2 billion
Spotify Revenue by User Type
Spotify owes most of its Q2 2023 revenue increase to its paying users.
Premium Spotify users accounted for as much as 87% of the firm’s operating earnings, whereas ad-supported ones contributed 13%. These numbers increased by around 11% and 12% respectively, compared to Q2 2022. You can see the changes over the last couple of quarters in the table below.
Q2 2022
Q3 2022
Q4 2022
Q1 2023
Q2 2023
Premium users-generated revenue
2.5 billion
2.7 billion
2.7 billion
2.7 billion
2.8 billion
Ad-supported users-generated revenue
360 million
380 million
449 million
329 million
404 million
Spotify ARPU Stats
Spotify reports show its Premium user ARPU declined by 6% in Q2 2023 compared to Q2 2022.
The average revenue per Premium user (ARPU) declined to EUR 4.27 by June 2023. This is largely due to changes in the product and marketing mix, and unfavorable foreign exchange rates.
Year
ARPU in EUR
2015
6.84
2016
6.2
2017
5.32
2018
4.89
2019
4.86
2020
4.31
2021
4.29
2022
4.52
Q1 2023
4.32
Q2 2023
4.27
Spotify Profit
Spotify recorded €766 million in gross profit in Q2 2023.
Spotify’s Q2 2023 performance led to a slight decline in the gross margin. Although Q2 2023 saw an all-time high in MAU growth and the strongest Q2 to date for subscribers net additions, the company saw an decrease in gross margin.
Namely, Spotify statistics indicate a 24.1% gross margin, down 47 bps. This is due to net charges related to the shutdown of various podcast shows, and the impairment of excess real estate.
Q2 2023
Q1 2023
2022
2021
2020
Total gross margin
24%
25%
25%
27%
26%
Spotify Revenue Predictions
Spotify’s forward-looking statements predict a profitable Q3 2023.
Its analytics predict a fruitful Q3 2023. The following table comprises the company’s expectations for 2023 Q3.
Total number of MAUs
572 million
Predicted addition of 21 million MAUs
Total number of Premium users
224 million
Predicted addition of 4 million Premium users
Total revenue
€3.3 billion
Predicted 600 bps headwind to growth Y/Y due to foreign currency exchange rates
Consolidated gross margin
26%
Predicted boost in podcasting and other cost of revenue
Operating (Loss)/Income
€(45) million
Predicted 600 bps benefit to operating expense growth Y/Y due to foreign exchange movements
Spotify Valuation
Experts predict Spotify’s stock will be valued at around $168 per share in Q2 2024.
Spotify has never been investors’ favorite because of its notorious low gross profit margins.
Nevertheless, the company has already made structural changes that could impact its valuation in the long run. It slashed its workforce, reduced its real estate, and shifted its focus to cost control and efficiency in hopes of reducing operating expenses. With limited competition and high-quality service and product, these changes could lead to serious margin improvements in 2024. If you’re interested in buying Spotify stocks, now might be a good time.
Spotify Genre Statistics
Spotify Music Stats
Hip hop is one of the most-listened-to genres on Spotify in 2023.
Hip hop alone accounts for close to 25% of all of Spotify’s regularly streamed music, according to Spotify itself. Nevertheless, we can’t forget the fact that the platform is home to numerous other genres, from classics to trendy and alternative varieties. Here’s how their popularity compares to USA’s top genres, as according to Medium as of July 2023:
Music genre
Popularity
R’n’B/Hip Hop
27.3%
Rock
16.5%
Pop
12.8%
Country
7.9%
Latin
8.1%
Dance/electronic
3.7%
World music
2.5%
Christian/gospel
1.7%
Classical
0.8%
Jazz
0.7%
Today’s Top Hits was Spotify’s most popular playlist in 2022.
Spotify offers hundreds of regularly updated playlists to its users worldwide. While most draw millions of followers, Today’s Top Hits consistently has the largest reach. It’s similar to Billboard Hot 100 in the sense that it covers the industry’s most popular tracks at any given moment. Here’s how it fared against other playlists that ranked high in popularity last year:
Today’s Top Hits — Over 30 million followers
Top 50 — Global — Close to 17 million followers
Rap Caviar — Around 15 million followers
Viva Latino — Around 12 million followers
Baila Reggaeton — Around 10 million followers
Rock Classics — Around 10 million followers
Songs to Sing in a Car — Close to 10 million followers
All Out 2000s — Close to 10 million followers
All Out 80s — Around 9 million followers
Beast Mode — Close to 9 million followers
The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights is currently the most-streamed song on Spotify.
Spotify’s top-streamed genres, playlists, and artists change frequently. However, the top-streamed song tends to be more stagnant. Ed Sheeran’s hit, Shape of You, has reigned supreme for several years. However, the Weeknd’s Blinding Lights took its throne in January 2023, more than three years after its release in 2019. This bop stands at over 3 billion streams. Give the table below a glance to discover other popular tracks on Spotify as of October 2023.
Artist
Song
Number of streams (in billions)
The Weeknd
Blinding Lights
3..846
Ed Sheeran
Shape of You
3.656
Lewis Capaldi
Someone You Loved
3.015
Post Malone and Swae Lee
Sunflower
2.960
Tones and I
Dance Monkey
2.918
Drake ft. Wizkid and Kyla
One Dance
2.819
Post Malone ft. 21 Savage
Rockstar
2.791
Kid Laroi ft. Justin Bieber
Stay
2.790
The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk
Starboy
2.744
Harry Styles
As It Was
2.740
Spotify Podcast Statistics
Spotify boasts over 100 million regular podcast listeners.
Although primarily a music streaming service, Spotify has recently entered the podcasting arena as well.
The venture was such a hit that the company made multi-million dollar investments in the category in five years, significantly expanding its offering. In return, podcast listenership continued to rise, helping uphold Spotify’s status as the best audio platform in the world.
Based on data from Edison Research, Spotify is currently the no. 1 podcast streaming platform in the US as of Q2 2023.
The top podcast category of 2023 was Comedy.
Spotify is among the richest podcast streaming platforms genre-wise. Its apps host around 60 podcast categories, including art, entertainment, crime, business, education, and more. Their popularity levels are pretty consistent. Spotify stats show that listeners’ preferred genre is comedy, followed by health & fitness, and true crime. Other popular genres include society & culture, and news.
Most Popular Podcasts on Spotify
The Joe Rogan Experience was Spotify’s most popular podcast in the US as of October 2023.
Rogan, The Joe Rogan Experience host and founder, has been involved in a number of controversies, some of which forced Spotify to take down several episodes. However, the podcast doesn’t appear tohave suffered at all.
This comedy/society-centered podcast has remained Spotify’s no. 1 podcast in the US in stream count since 2020. Here’s a list featuring other October 2023 most-streamed contenders on Spotify.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark
New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce
Hot Mess with Alix Earle
The Broski Report with Brittany Broski
Spotify Library Stats
Spotify currently hosts over 100 million music tracks.
Spotify has always been home to the newest and most exciting music. In 2021, the company’s CEO, Ek, confirmed that around 60,000 new songs are added to the platform every day. To put it into perspective, these figures suggest Spotify adds a new song to its database every 1.4 seconds and releases 21 million songs annually. Statistics like this may be beyond impressive, but it wasn’t always like that. The company has had to come a long way to attain the numbers it enjoys today. The table below shows how its song database has grown over time.
Year
Number of available music tracks
2018
around 40 million
2019
around 50 million
2020
around 70 million
2021
around 82 million
2022
around 100 million
Oct 2023
over 100 million
Spotify hosted 5 million podcasts by the end of 2022.
This music-streaming platform entered the podcast scene in 2018. The category immediately became a hit with the listeners. The number of podcast followers grew by 175% by the end of the year. Realizing podcasts are the next big thing, the company decided to take advantage of the market gap. It started by acquiring two of the leading players in the podcasting industry — Gimlet Media and Anchor. Since then, Spotify has invested more than $500 million into this sector.
Year
Number of podcasts
2019
around 700,000
2020
over 2.2 million
2021
over 3.6 million
2022
over 5 million
Oct 2023
over 5 million
Spotify currently offers over 350,000 audiobooks.
Audiobooks are Spotify’s latest business endeavor. Nir Zicherman, Spotify’s vice president, explained the company considers the sector a “substantial untapped market.” Spotify acquired Findaway, a popular audiobook platform, in June last year to support its new service. The program officially launched in September 2022, providing listeners with over 350,000 ready-to-listen titles in various genres. Spotify’s shelves include non-fiction, novels, business literature, historical fiction, and more.
The platform’s current audiobook pricing model is based on one-time purchases. It doesn’t require listeners to be Premium users or pay for a subscription. The entire audiobook library is available to everyone interested.
Spotify Popular Artist Stats
Drake is Spotify’s most-streamed artist as of October 2023.
Like the most-streamed song, the top-streamed artists do not change often on Spotify. Bad Bunny, a Latin American singer/rapper, successfully held the title for three consecutive years.
However, in a surprising turn of events, Drake surpassed him this April 2023, reaching a whopping 66 billion streams.
According to ChartMaster, here’s other popular musical artists and the number of their streams on Spotify below as of October 2023.
Artist
Number of streams
Drake
66,675,110,080
Bad Bunny
62,970,559,615
Taylor Swift
60,284,771,183
The Weeknd
48,737,171,355
Ed Sheeran
45,059,576,581
Ariana Grande
38,668,419,473
Justin Bieber
38,641,711,116
Eminem
38,015,791,524
BTS
35,876,378,767
Post Malone
35,759,978,652
Bad Bunny was Spotify’s top-streamed artist in 2022.
Drake may have overthrown Bad Bunny as the most-streamed artist, but the Puerto Rican singer/rapper remains atop the charts. Spotify named him its top artist after he reached 18.5 billion streams on this platform in 2022.
He also clinched the 2022 most-streamed album honors with his fourth solo album, Un Verano Sin Ti. According to Billboard, the album made a streaming record on the day it was released — Spotify listeners streamed it as many as 183 million times within 24 hours.
The lists below show Bad Bunny’s competitors for the top artist and album based on Spotify statistics.
2022 Most Streamed Artist
Bad Bunny
Taylor Swift
Drake
The Weeknd
BTS
2022 Most-Streamed Album
Un Verano Sin Ti (Bad Bunny)
Harry’s House (Harry Styles)
SOUR (Olivia Rodrigo)
= (Ed Sheeran)
Planet Her (Doja Cat)
Spotify vs. Competitors
Spotify might be the world’s best-known music streaming platform, but it’s not without competition. This company’s biggest rival, especially in the US market, is Apple Music, a service launched in 2015. This platform holds the biggest global market share after Spotify. Its strength lies in its comprehensive portfolio. Plus, the company’s focus isn’t as narrow as Spotify’s, which gives it a wider audience reach.
A close second to Apple Music is Amazon, another globally renowned company. Launched in 2007, it’s older than both competitors mentioned so far. However, it features a somewhat smaller user base and music library. Still, the platform works similarly to the other two — it’s available on desktop and as an app for Android and iOS users. Plus, it also lets you stream music on demand for a monthly fee.
YouTube Music is the third and final music-streaming company worth mentioning in this section. The service launched around the same time as Apple Music in 2015. Users can access songs, albums, and playlists with and without video through paid and free plans.
YouTube Music used to trail behind its competitors but has gained more traction recently.
A likely contributor to this success is its human-curated content, which sets it apart from the AI-generated material its competitors offer.
Spotify Fun Facts
Now that we’ve gone through all the latest statistics and information, let’s have a little fun with some Spotify facts. Here are a few things you didn’t know about the world’s most recognizable audio platform.
Spotify is based in Sweden — Considering the modern music landscape, many presume a famous streaming platform like Spotify is based in the United States. However, that’s not the case. Spotify was founded in Stockholm by two Swedish entrepreneurs, Ek and Lorentzon. Although it grew exponentially since its launch, opening offices worldwide, it never left its native country. Its headquarters are still located in the Swedish capital.
Spotify Wrapped launch was a game-changer — Spotify Wrapped is a marketing campaign this company first launched in December 2016. It lets users view stats related to their activity on the platform during the past year (from January 1 to October 31). The information includes details such as top artists, top songs, top music genres, and so on. Spotify encouraged users to share their stats on social media, which made the campaign viral. Large-scale info sharing served as a free advertisement and helped Spotify gain millions of new subscribers. Other popular music streaming platforms have since adopted the same marketing strategy.
Spotify Premium users are entitled to a free Hulu account — The famous TV streaming platform, Hulu, joined forces with Spotify in 2019. Through this partnership, the companies agreed to offer several benefits. The most popular one allows Spotify Premium users who are students living in the US to use Hulu and Showtime for free. All they need to do is sign up for a Spotify account, visit the Your Services section, and select the Activate button with the Hulu logo.
Spotify’s new DJ feature is gaining traction — The company rolled out an AI-driven feature called DJ in February 2023. The tool is designed to personalize users’ music selection and provide spoken commentary. The latter offers information about the artists, music, and lyrics. The tool is meant to improve users’ experience on the platform, eliminating the need for listeners to constantly make decisions regarding song and playlist choices. Spotify’s DJ is still in its beta version.
Final Thoughts
In summary, Spotify’s statistics underscore its dominance in the music streaming industry.
With over 551 million active users and a presence in 184 countries as of Q2 2023, it stands as a global leader.
Financially, Spotify is robust, earning over $12 billion in revenue last year, supported by a strong base of 220 million paying subscribers.
The platform’s expansive library, featuring over 100 million music tracks and 5 million podcasts, caters to a diverse audience, with a significant presence among younger generations and a slight majority of female users as of 2021.
As represented in the Spotify stats, the platform’s success is marked by its adaptability, innovative content offerings, and a business model that balances premium and ad-supported services, positioning it as a key player in the digital music and entertainment landscape.
Milan has been part of the Business2Community team for several years, having written hundreds of published articles as a freelance writer. He holds a master's degree in business marketing, making him the perfect person to give you advice on how to grow your business. With years of experience in the field, Milan knows how to create insightful, in-depth articles and guides focused on business development and growth. Milan studied business marketing at university, but recently turned to the growing tech industry, combining the two spheres. Since every business needs to establish an online presence regardless of size, Milan started exploring new software and platforms covering various niches – from website builders and CRM to LMS and SEO. Together, these software solutions can dramatically improve a company's performance, presence, and overall success. Milan has closely followed the development and presence of various software solutions in many industries to try to learn how they work and benefit users (individuals or companies). He now primarily writes unbiased software reviews tailored to small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises. His keen eye for detail helps him uncover the tiniest of flaws that could potentially have a massive impact on a business. Milan also has an interest in cryptocurrency and provides some crypto articles for Business2Community.