Digital audio giant Spotify today announced its First Quarter 2026 earnings, signaling a robust start to its “Year of Raising Ambition” by achieving its second-highest gross margin to date while meeting or exceeding expectations across all crucial metrics. This performance highlights continued business momentum and ongoing innovation aimed at personalising user discovery and control.
The streaming platform surpassed 760 million monthly active users (MAUs) during the period, concurrently delivering an impressive financial outcome. Key performance indicators for the first quarter of 2026 demonstrated significant advancements across the board.
Premium Subscribers expanded by 9% year-on-year, reaching a total of 293 million paying members. Monthly Active Users (MAUs) saw a 12% increase year-on-year, climbing to 761 million individuals engaging with the service.
Financially, total revenue escalated by 14% year-on-year at constant currency rates, culminating in pound 4.5 billion. The company’s gross margin improved by approximately 140 basis points year-on-year, reaching 33%, while operating income for the quarter stood at pound 715 million.
Alex Norström, Co-CEO of Spotify, remarked on the results, stating: ‘We surpassed 760 million MAU, delivered on the subscriber growth we aimed to achieve, and saw healthy engagement from existing users, reactivations and new users alike. Since the global rollout of our more personalized free experience, users in key markets like the US are listening and watching more days per month. All that reinforces our confidence in sustained user and subscriber growth, low churn, and continued progress on revenue and margin.’
Gustav Söderström, also a Co-CEO, further commented on the company’s strategic positioning: ‘We’re well positioned because of our large, engaged user base, deep creator relationships, and years of investment in personalization and infrastructure at scale. Together, these create a platform that can take advantage of this moment and unlock entirely new growth vectors that will enable us to climb new mountains previously unimaginable. We see significant room to grow across users, formats and engagement and to expand what Spotify is and can become over time.’