Spotify deep in the red

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Music streaming market leader Spotify gained more users than expected this past quarter – but it’s still in the red. As a result, there was a quarterly loss of €225 million after a profit of €131 million a year earlier.

Deep fall comes after Corona peak

Meanwhile, sales rose 14.3 percent to 3 billion euros, as Spotify announced on Tuesday. Among other things, increased headcount after the employment expansion last year resulted in higher costs as well as severance pay following layoffs initiated in January of this year. At the time, the group had announced that it would cut 6 percent of all business. This corresponds to approximately 600 jobs.

The layoffs have gone hand in hand with mass layoffs at various tech companies, from Google to Facebook to Amazon. The entire tech industry is suffering from a post-corona slump: During the pandemic, they had benefited from a one-time increase in user numbers and massively created jobs. Demand for tech platforms and services has waned as the pandemic ends.

Spotify stream modeled on Instagram

The Swedish company closed the quarter with 515 million users, of which 210 million are paid subscribers. Both numbers were much better than Spotify had predicted.

For the current quarter, Spotify is currently targeting a total of 530 million users and 217 million paying customers. Spotify added a feed to its app in March, modeled on Instagram and Tiktok, where users can discover new music and podcasts. Spotify boss Daniel Ek has invested several hundred million euros to expand his podcast business through advertising revenue. (SDA/sfa)

Source :Blick