Spotify's stock initially rose almost 16 percent in futures trading on the New York Stock Exchange after the 2025 financial results. Before the opening of trading on Wall Street, the rise had narrowed to around 8.5 percent.
"During the fourth quarter, we met or exceeded our forecasts for all key metrics," said Alex Norström, one of Spotify's two CEOs, in a press release.
Founder and chairman of the board Daniel Ek adds:
"The next wave of technological shifts - AI, new interfaces, wearables, new ways to interact with content - will reshape how people discover and experience sound and media. The challenges that lie ahead, in music, podcasts, books, video, live and things we haven't built yet, we will continue to develop technology to solve."
The number of monthly users of streaming service Spotify rose to 751 million in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the report. Of these, 290 million were paying premium subscribers.
Better than expected
The development was slightly better than expected. Spotify's own forecast - published in the third quarter report - was 745 million monthly users, of which 289 million were paying premium subscribers in the fourth quarter.
Growth is expected to continue. For the first quarter of 2026, Spotify expects the number of users to increase to 759 million, of which 293 million are premium subscribers, according to the financial statements.
Open for book purchases
Ahead of the financial year, Spotify has, among other things, opened up the ability for users in the US and UK to purchase physical books via the company's app.
The price rise after the financial statements follows Spotify's shares losing almost 28 percent of their value since the beginning of the year. From the historical peak at the end of June 2025 - when the share cost a maximum of $785 - the price has almost halved.
The recent price drop accelerated when co-founder Daniel Ek announced at the end of September that he would be leaving his position as CEO. Spotify has been led by two CEOs since the turn of the year: Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström, with Daniel Ek as chairman of the board.
Correction: In a previous version there was an incorrect word in the title.
Spotify reports an operating profit of €701 million for the fourth quarter of 2025, on revenue of €4.5 billion. Gross margin rose to 33.1 percent, from 32.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The company's forecast for fourth-quarter sales was 4.5 billion euros, with a gross margin of 32.9 percent and an operating profit of 620 million euros. The average forecast among analysts was for an operating profit of 639 million euros, according to Bloomberg.
Gross margin is the portion of Spotify's revenue that remains after variable costs - rights payments and artist royalties - have been paid.
Sales are expected to remain around EUR 4.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, which is assumed to result in an operating profit of EUR 660 million.
Source: Spotify
