This +7 million growth was ahead of guidance by 1 million.
Spotify reported that this Premium Subscriber performance reflected “Y/Y and Q/Q growth across all regions” plus “strong global promotional campaign intake”.
Spotify added that Premium growth was “driven by Q/Q gains in Europe, Rest of World, Latin America and North America”.
“We have a scale that few companies in history have reached, a business that is healthy and compounding, and opportunities only we are positioned to pursue.”
Alex Norström
Alex Norström, Co-CEO, said: “We have a scale that few companies in history have reached, a business that is healthy and compounding, and opportunities only we are positioned to pursue. Spotify lives across your whole day — the commute, the workout, studying, gaming, the dinner table, and sleep. At our scale, that is rare…Our position gives us an opportunity space as wide as our users want it to be.”
“We are still in the very early stages of what is possible and will continue to have a high bar for investments.”
Gustav Söderström
Gustav Söderström, Co-CEO, added: “Investor Day described where we believe Spotify is going in the future. This quarter demonstrated that we are already building that future: better engineering, faster shipping, new products and new ways for users to engage.
“We are still in the very early stages of what is possible and will continue to have a high bar for investments…Our job remains the same: understand the technology early and deeply, and turn it into something people love. Creating value for our stakeholders.”
Spotify breaks down its Premium Subscriber base by region within its investor presentation, reporting that Europe accounted for 36% of its total Premium Subscriber base as of the end of Q2.
North America accounted for 25% of SPOT’s total subscriber base in Q2, while Latin America accounted for 24% and Rest of World made up 15%.
Spotify said the quarter included a special in-app experience marking its 20th anniversary, which nearly 100 million users engaged with in its first six days and which the company said helped drive its “biggest single day of subscriber intake ever”.
Spotify also launched Reserved in the US during the quarter, a feature it operates with Live Nation that gives an artist’s most dedicated Premium subscribers early access to concert tickets.
Monthly Active Users
Spotify‘s total Monthly Active Users, which combine paying users and ad-supported users, grew 12% YoYto 777 million.
That was up +16 million MAUs from the 761 million reported for the prior quarter (Q1 2026), and 1 million below guidance, with Spotify having forecast 778 million MAUs in Q2 (see below).
Spotify said its MAU performance in Q2 reflected “Y/Y and Q/Q growth across all regions”, with growth “driven by Q/Q gains in Rest of World, Europe, North America and Latin America”.
Revenue
Spotify generated €4.777 billion ($5.56bn) in total quarterly revenue in Q2, up 14% YoY, or 15% YoY at constant currency.
Spotify‘s Premium revenues grew 16% YoY at constant currency to €4.331 billion ($5.04bn), driven by subscriber and ARPU gains.
The firm’s Premium monthly ARPU stood at €4.89 ($5.69), up 7.4% YoY at constant currency.
Spotify noted in its investor presentation that “excluding the impact of FX, ARPU growth was driven by price increase benefits, partially offset by product/market mix”.
Spotify‘s Ad-Supported Revenue in Q2 was €446 million ($519m), up 3% YoY at constant currency.
The company said its music advertising performance was “driven by growth in impressions sold, partially offset by softness in pricing”, with podcasting growth “led by sponsorship gains” within its Owned & Licensed portfolio.
Profitability
In terms of profitability, Spotify posted a quarterly operating income of €655 million ($762m) for Q2.
That was up 61% YoY (59% YoY at constant currency) and down 8% QoQ, but ahead of guidance of €630 million due to Gross Margin strength and lower Social Charges.
The company’s Gross Margin finished at 33.4% in Q2, up 193 bps YoY from 31.5% a year earlier, which Spotify described as an all-time high.
Operating Expenses included €1 million in Social Charges on share-based compensation, which the company said was €9 million below forecast due to share price movement during the quarter.
SPOT explained: “Social Charges are payroll taxes associated with employee salaries and benefits in select countries where we operate.”
“Since a portion of these taxes is tied to the intrinsic value of share-based compensation awards, movements in our stock price can lead to fluctuations in the taxes we accrue,” Spotify added.
The prior-year period had included €115 million ($134m) in Social Charges.
At the end of Q2, Spotify‘s workforce consisted of 7,302 full-time employees globally.
Free Cash Flow reached €797 million ($927m) in Q2, which Spotify said was a record for a second quarter, bringing trailing-12-month Free Cash Flow to €3.3 billion.
The company ended Q2 with €9.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short term investments.
It added that it had repurchased $662 million in shares so far this year through August 3, a 30% increase over 2025 levels.
In aggregate, Spotify said it had bought back nearly 2.2 million shares since resuming repurchases in 2025, or around 1% of shares outstanding.
Guidance for Q3
In terms of guidance for Q3, Spotify forecasts reaching 788 million MAUs at the close of Q3 (the end of September), an addition of around 11 million net new MAUs in the quarter.
The company projects its total Premium Subscriber base to hit 305 million by the end of Q3, an addition of approximately 5 million net new subscribers.
Spotify also forecasts an operating income of €670 million for Q3, alongside total quarterly revenue of €5.0 billion and a Gross Margin of 32.9%.
The company said its Q3 revenue guidance assumes a foreign-exchange tailwind to YoY growth of around 200 bps, based on currency rates as of the Q2 close.
“Overall, we view the business as well positioned to deliver improved growth and margins in 2026 as we reinvest to support our long-term potential,” Spotify stated in its shareholder update.
All EUR-USD conversions made at the average Q2 2026 exchange rate published by the European Central Bank.Music Business WorldwideMusic Business Worldwide
