Spotify二季度用户与订户增长略超预期，但收入和三季度用户/经营利润指引不够强

Spotify Technology SA, the world’s largest music streaming service, boosted its total users to 777 million, an increase of 12% from the same time last year, suggesting a new suite of products and content offerings is attracting new customers.

The Stockholm-based company reported a 9% increase in paying subscribers to 300 million, slightly ahead of analysts’ forecasts for 299.2 million.

Revenue for the quarter increased 14% to €4.78 billion ($5.5 billion), slightly behind Wall Street’s expectations. Growth was driven by new subscriber gains globally and higher prices.

Adjusted operating income of €655 million exceeded the €637 million analysts had forecast. Spotify said revenue gains offset additional costs for content, including music, audiobooks and video podcasts.

The ad-supported business, which decreased during the first quarter of the year, climbed 1% in the April to June period. The company has said it’s overhauling its ad tech product to bring in more advertisers for both video and audio ads.

Earlier this year, Gustav Söderström, co-chief executive officer, said the company implemented AI to expedite and increase the amount of products rolled out and to better personalize the service for individuals’ taste.

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In May, the company showed off some of that work during its investor day. Customers will get access to tickets to their favorite artists’ concerts thanks to a partnership with Live Nation Entertainment Inc., for example. Many of the new products will be exclusively available to paying subscribers or require users to pay more to use them.

While the company has traditionally focused on growing subscribers as a way of increasing revenue, it now regularly increases prices and hopes its most ardent users will pay even more for access to special features.

Among these pricier offerings, the company announced an AI music product in partnership with Universal Music Group NV, the biggest record label, that will let users pay to remix or cover songs within the app using AI.

Over the years, Spotify has sought to stand out among its peers by expanding from being a music-only destination to one focused on a variety of content that keeps users coming back. It now offers both podcasts and audiobooks and has increasingly pushed into video programming that’s standard on platforms like YouTube. The company also began allowing musicians to upload music videos to the platform directly.

The company forecast total monthly users of 788 million for the third quarter, revenue of €5 billion and operating income of €670 million. The user and operating income numbers are below expectations from analysts.