Monday 29 April 2019 1:37 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 12:18 am

Spotify reaches 100m premium subscribers as it marks milestone in first quarter

Spotify hit 100m premium subscribers in the first quarter of this year, as the music streaming platform expanded into India and saw a positive uptake of new services.

The number of premium subscribers paying for the streaming service jumped 32 per cent to 100m driven by the expansion of its Google Home Mini promotion, which offers a free Google voice speaker to Family Plan holders, into the UK and France.

Monthly active users also increased 26 per cent to 217m during the three months of 2019 and revenue grew 33 per cent year on year to €1.5bn (£1.3bn). Meanwhile, revenue from the firm’s premium product jumped 34 per cent to €1.38bn.

The steaming giant entered the Indian market in February, where more than 1m users signed up within the first week. The company now has more than 2m users in India.

Adoption of the streaming platform’s podcast service, which provides creators with tools and data insights on audience demographics, has been positive as the number of users on the platform has nearly doubled in the six months since its launch.

More than 20,000 podcast teams are using the platform and a monthly basis and more than 50,000 shows have been submitted through the Spotify for Podcasters service.

Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst Nicholas Hyett said: Customer growth came in towards the top of Spotify’s expectations, with particularly strong numbers from premium subscribers. Good growth in this higher margins customer group has helped to shrink losses by more than expected this quarter, and for the year as a whole.

“That’s all good news, but we think some of the most encouraging news is the positive reaction to recent product launches aimed at content producers.”

Hyett added that the potential in cracking the “populous and potentially high-growth Indian market would be “huge”.

“After all much of Asia is truly ‘mobile-first’,” he said.

“With rivals of the calibre of Amazon and Apple, Spotify can’t afford to rest on its laurels, but so far the group seems to be more than capable of holding its own.”