Spotify increased its number of premium subscribers to 138 million in the second quarter of 2020 – up 27% year-on-year, according to its latest earnings report.
The streaming service had reported 130m subscribers for Q1 2020 and credited its Family Plan for continuing to be a "significant driver of our outperformance".
Total revenue of €1.89 billion (£1.69bn) was up 13% on the previous 12 months. Ad-supported revenue of €131 million (£117m) was down 21% YOY as a result of the pandemic, but was "slightly above" the firm's expectations.
"Our business performed well in Q2 and continues to operate at a high level despite the continuing uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic," said the company. "Excluding the impact of social charges related to the increase in our share price during Q2, all of our key metrics would have finished at or ahead of our expectations.
"We saw strong subscriber growth across all regions in the quarter and finished ahead of our expectations.
"Despite the ongoing uncertainty around Covid-19, we had our largest ever bi-annual campaign with strong gross additions in both the ‘3 months on us’ intro offer for new users, as well as the win-back offer for returning customers."
Spotify noted that global consumption hour trends had now recovered to pre-Covid levels.
"All regions have fully recovered with the exception of Latin America which is approximately 6% below peak levels prior to the global health crisis," it said. "Regions where the spread of COVID-19 appears to be slowing, including APAC and EU, have led the recovery in consumption. Consumption trends by platform are beginning to normalize as well; in-car listening at the end of the quarter was less than 10% below pre-Covid levels having recovered from a 50% decline at the trough in April."
The company announced a new global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group last week in deal that “further aligns the companies’ efforts to foster groundbreaking new features providing value for artists and great experiences for music fans”.
"With this new agreement, the companies advance their industry-leading partnership, reflecting a shared commitment to music’s continued growth, deeper music discovery experiences and collaboration on new, state-of-the-art marketing campaigns across Spotify’s platform," it said.
Spotify launched in 13 new markets across Europe earlier this month, including Russia. The expansion means the streaming service now reaches 92 markets worldwide. Its 13 new countries include Albania, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
