Spotify becomes first streaming platform with over 200 million paid subscribers

Spotify is the first streaming platform to hit the 200 million paid subscribers milestone.

In Spotify’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2022, the Swedish company confirmed it had 205 million paid subscribers as of 31st December, the Verge reports. That’s a 14% increase on 2021’s paid subscriber count.

The earnings statement also reported losses of €231 million for Q4, consistent with previous quarter losses but less than the prediction of €300 million.

This comes as streaming giant announced layoffs of 6% of its workforce, affecting about 600 employees.

According to Music Ally, Spotify’s closest competitors are Apple Music and Amazon Music, which reported paid subscriber numbers of 60 million in 2019 and 55 million in 2020, respectively.

A November 2022 UK report found that streaming services are unlikely to ever make sufficient “excess profits” to improve payouts to artists. It also found that 60% of streams were for the top 0.4% of artists. DJ Mag