Q4 2025 Spotify Technology SA Earnings Call

February 10, 2026

Speaker #1: built is a technology platform for audio and increasingly for all ways creators connect with audiences. And this identity will matter even more going forward.

Daniel Ek: We drove the shift from downloads to streaming and subscription, and we proved the model could work at scale. But here's what excites me the most: our capabilities now extend far beyond music. Today, what we built is a technology platform for audio, and increasingly for all ways creators connect with audiences. And this identity will matter even more going forward. The next wave of technology shifts, AI, new interfaces, wearables, new ways of interacting with content, these will reshape how people discover and experience audio and media. The hard problems I had in music, in podcasts, in books, in video, in live, and in things we haven't even built yet, we're going to keep building the technology to solve them. Third, we play the long game. When we went public in 2018, I talked about long-term value creation.

Daniel Ek: While I know many of you focus quarter to quarter, that's not how we grade ourselves, and it's never been. We chose growth over profitability for many years, and I know that was painful for some of you, but in order to scale, it was the right thing for consumers and creators, and ultimately for the business we're running today. We acquired The Echo Nest back in 2014 when most people didn't understand why a streaming company needed a machine learning AI company. And that bet gave us personalization, something that's now core to everything we do. We built our ubiquity play that's called Spotify Connect starting in 2011, right as we launched in the US. At the time, every major tech platform was building their own walled garden for audio. The conventional wisdom was: pick an ecosystem and live inside it. We bet the other way.

Q4 2025 Spotify Technology SA Earnings Call

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Q4 2025 Spotify Technology SA Earnings Call

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Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 at 1:00 PM

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When we went public in 2018, I talked about long-term value creation. I know many of you focus quarter to quarter. That's not how we grade ourselves, and it never has been.

Daniel Ek: And that bet gave us personalization, something that's now core to everything we do. We built our ubiquity play that's called Spotify Connect starting in 2011, right as we launched in the US. At the time, every major tech platform was building their own walled garden for audio. The conventional wisdom was: pick an ecosystem and live inside it. We bet the other way.

We chose growth over profitability for many years, and I know that was painful for some of you. But in order to scale, it was the right thing for consumers and creators—and ultimately for the business we’re running today. We acquired Echo Nest back in 2014, when most people didn’t understand why a streaming company needed a machine learning AI company, and that bet gave us personalization—something that’s now core to everything we do. We built our ubiquity play, that’s called Spotify Connect, starting in 2011, right as we...

Daniel Ek: We decided Spotify should work everywhere, in your car, your speaker, your TV, your gaming console, regardless of whose ecosystem you're in: Apple's, Google's, Amazon's, Samsung's, Sonos', all of them seamlessly. Today, Spotify works across more than 2,000 devices from over 200 brands. You can start a song on your phone, and you can finish it on your TV. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because we chose ubiquity over control, openness over lock-in, and we stuck with it for over a decade. These weren't obvious calls at the time, but they compound. That long-term orientation will continue to guide Spotify. Which brings me to talents, because we take a long-term view there too. At Spotify, we built a culture that tries to build and reward trust. Trust to take risks, trust to fail and learn, trust to challenge each other, and share the thinking behind our decisions.

Launched in the us. At the time, every major Tech platform was building their own wall Garden for audio. The conventional wisdom was picking ecosystem and live inside it. We bet the other way. We decided Spotify should work everywhere in your car, your speaker, your TV, your gaming console, regardless of whose ecosystem, you're in Apple's. Google's Amazon? Samsung. Sonos all of them seamlessly and today Spotify Works across more than 2,000 devices from over 200 Brands and you can start a song on your phone and you can finish it on your TV. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because we choose the ubiquity Over Control, openness over, lock in, and we stuck with it for over a decade. These weren't obvious calls at the time, but they compound. And that long-term orientation will continue to guide Spotify.

Daniel Ek: At Spotify, we built a culture that tries to build and reward trust. Trust to take risks, trust to fail and learn, trust to challenge each other, and share the thinking behind our decisions. And here's why that matters: moving fast isn't just about how much you ship; it's about shipping the right things. A culture of trust gives you both. People dare to try, but they also dare to debate, to push back, to find the better path together. That's how you iterate quickly without losing direction. If there's trust, most processes are easy, allowing you to move very fast. A culture of trust is hard to replicate. It is why we develop leaders from within. And I think Alex and Gustav are great proofs of this.

Which brings me to talent because we take a long-term view there too.

Daniel Ek: And here's why that matters: moving fast isn't just about how much you ship; it's about shipping the right things. A culture of trust gives you both. People dare to try, but they also dare to debate, to push back, to find the better path together. That's how you iterate quickly without losing direction. If there's trust, most processes are easy, allowing you to move very fast. A culture of trust is hard to replicate. It is why we develop leaders from within. And I think Alex and Gustav are great proofs of this. They've been at the center of nearly every major shift in this company: mobile, subscription, machine learning, podcasts, audiobooks, marketplace, etc., etc. They didn't inherit Spotify. They really helped building it. And of course, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here as executive chairman, focus on the long term. But this is their moment to lead.

At Spotify, we built the culture that tries to build and reward the trust trust to take risks, trust to fail and learn trust. The challenge each other and share, the thinking behind our decisions. And here's why that matters, moving fast isn't just about how much you ship. It's about shipping the right things, a culture of trust gives you both people, dare to try, but they also dare to debate to push back to find the better path together, that's how you iterate quickly without losing direction. If there's trusts, most processes are easy allowing you to move very fast.

A culture of trust is hard to replicate and is why we developed leaders from within.

Daniel Ek: They've been at the center of nearly every major shift in this company: mobile, subscription, machine learning, podcasts, audiobooks, marketplace, etc., etc. They didn't inherit Spotify. They really helped building it. And of course, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here as executive chairman, focus on the long term. But this is their moment to lead.

And I think Alex and Gustav are great proofs of this. They've been at the center of nearly every major shift in this company—mobile subscription, machine learning, podcast, audiobooks, marketplace, etc., etc. They didn't inherit Spotify. They really helped build it.

Daniel Ek: And I have deep confidence in them, not because everything will go perfectly, of course it won't, but because I've watched them solve problems that looked impossible, and then do it again and again. And they're not here to protect what I built. They're here to build what we haven't imagined yet. And their success is our success, and I'm rooting very hard for them. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Alex, Gustav, and Christian.

And, of course, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here as executive chairman, focused on the long term, but this is their moment to lead, and I have deep confidence in them—not because everything will go perfectly; of course, it won't. But because I've watched them solve problems that looked impossible, and then do it again and again. They're not here to protect what I built; they're here to build what we haven't imagined yet. Their success is our success, and I'm rooting very hard for them. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Alex, Gustav, and Christian.

Alex Norström: Thank you, Daniel. And congratulations on a legendary run. Wow. Both Gustav and I thank you for the encouraging words and your trust. Now we closed out what we dubbed as the Year of Accelerated Execution with another solid quarter, delivering a strong finish to 2025. In Q4, we met or exceeded guidance across all the key metrics. We marked our highest quarter ever for MAU net additions. It's just incredible to think that we now serve over 3/4 of a billion people around the world. Since going public, I have been touting the importance of our flywheel, and it all starts with MAU growth, which in turn fuels the growth of our overall business. A driver of MAU outperformance is Wrapped, which was also record-breaking this year. While we saw impressive engagement back in 2024, we also got feedback on the user experience.

Thank you, Daniel and congratulations on a Legendary Run.

um, both Gustav, and I, thank you for for the encouraging words and your trust

And now we closed out what we dubbed. As the year of accelerated execution with another solid quarter, delivering a strong finish to 2025, in Q4 we met or exceeded guidance across all the key metrics. We marked our highest quarter ever for meu, net additions. It's just incredible to think that we now serve over 3, quarters of a billion people around the world.

Since going public, I have been touting the importance of our flywheel, and it all starts with MAU growth, which in turn fuels the growth of our overall business.

Alex Norström: So this year, we turned up the dial, and the response was resounding. At the end of the campaign, more than 300 million users engaged, which was up 20%. And we saw more than 630 million shares across social media, which is up 42%. Even more, day one of Wrapped marked the highest single day of subscriber intake in Spotify history. Lots of learnings, and we take our responsibility seriously to deliver on this much-anticipated moment every year for our users. We're also driving significant business growth for creative industries. In 2025, we paid out more than $11 billion to music rights holders, once again setting a global record for the highest annual payment from a single source. This takes us to nearly $70 billion since our founding.

At the end of the campaign, more than 300 million users engaged, which was up 20%, and we saw more than 630 million shares across social media, which is up 42%.

Even more, day one of Wrapped marked the highest single day of subscriber intake in Spotify history. Lots of learnings, and we take our responsibility seriously to deliver on this much-anticipated moment every year for our users.

We're also driving significant business growth for Creative Industries, and in 2025, we paid out more than $11 billion to music rights holders—once again setting a global record for the highest annual payment from a single source.

Uh, this takes us to nearly $70 billion since our founding,

Alex Norström: In podcasting, video podcast consumption on Spotify has increased by more than 90% since the launch of the Spotify Partner Program, or what we call SPP. There are now more than 530,000 video podcast shows on our platform. I hope you all caught the watershed moment at the Golden Globes, where Spotify and The Ringer's "Good Hang" with Amy Poehler won the first-ever Best Podcast Award. This milestone underscores podcasting's impact on culture, and we're proud to have been a key part of it. Now, rounding things out with audiobooks, we expanded audiobooks in Premium to more markets where we're already finding some of the world's most passionate listeners. As we continue to scale this, leading global publishers have credited us with bringing in listeners, new listeners, and driving double-digit growth in audiobooks.

In podcasting video podcast consumption on Spotify as a increased by more than 90% since the launch of the Spotify partner program or what we call spp.

There are now more than 530,000 video podcast shows on our platform.

And I hope you all caught the watershed moment that the Golden Globes were—Spotify and The Ringer's 'Good Hang' with Amy Poehler won one of the first ever Best Podcast Awards. This milestone underscores podcasting's impact on culture, and we're proud to have been a key part of it.

Now, rounding things out with audiobooks, we expanded audiobooks in Premium to more markets where we're already finding some of the world's most passionate listeners as we continue to scale. Leading global publishers have credited us with bringing in new listeners and driving double-digit growth in audiobooks.

Alex Norström: Now you should expect Gustav and I to continue to optimize for and be relentless about creating value for users. Because when people spend more days in a month with us, across more moments, more devices, and more verticals, it proves our product is working. It means our investments into personalization and AI are paying off. It means we're doing a great job sharing the art made by our artists, podcasters, and authors. What this ultimately translates into is greater engagement and retention, which unlocks more revenue growth. As our revenue grows, we bring more value back to our partners, artists, and creators. With scale comes more opportunity for innovation and margin expansion. Disciplined reinvestment of this pushes growth even further. This is our formula: rinse and repeat. As we've mentioned before, we have one of the greatest TAMs in the world.

Now, you should expect Gustav and I to continue to optimize for, and be relentless about, creating value for users.

because when people spend more days in a month with us, a cross more moments, more devices and more verticals, it proves our product is working

It means our investment into personalization and AI are paying off.

It means we're doing a great job, sharing the art made by our artists podcasters and authors.

Alex Norström: As our revenue grows, we bring more value back to our partners, artists, and creators. With scale comes more opportunity for innovation and margin expansion. Disciplined reinvestment of this pushes growth even further. This is our formula: rinse and repeat. As we've mentioned before, we have one of the greatest TAMs in the world.

What this ultimately translates into is greater engagement and retention, which unlocks more revenue growth. And as our revenue grows, we bring back more value to our partners, artists, and creators. With scale comes more opportunity for innovation and margin expansion.

This disciplined reinvestment pushes growth even further. This is our formula—rinse and repeat.

as we've mentioned before,

Alex Norström: That's because everyone has a relationship with music. And podcasts and audiobooks, it deepens that connection even further. We proudly count 3.5% of the world as subscribers, and there's still lots of room to grow. It's not impossible to imagine us converting 10 or even 15% of the world's population to subscribers. With strong performance across all metrics, including user growth, revenue, gross margin, operating income, and cash flow, I'm confident about our position. And I'm optimistic about 2026 and beyond. We expect continued healthy MAU and subs growth throughout the year while maintaining our consistently low churn. We will also make further progress on driving top-line growth and expanding gross margin. In closing, you might be wondering about our focus for 2026. We are framing it as the Year of Raising Ambition.

We we have 1 of the greatest times in the world that's because everyone has a relationship with music and podcasts and audiobooks. It's deepens that connection even further. We proudly count 3 and a half percent of the world as subscribers and there's still lots of room to grow. It's not implausible to imagine us converting 10 or even 15% of the world's population to subscribers.

With strong performance across all metrics, including user growth, revenue, gross margin, operating income, and cash flow, I'm confident about our position. I'm optimistic about 2026 and beyond. We expect continued, healthy MAU and subs growth throughout the year while maintaining our consistently low churn. We will also make further progress on driving topline growth and expanding gross margin.

Alex Norström: We were founded to solve what we felt like the impossible, and ambition has been the driving force behind our success from our earliest days. Ambition will be a guiding principle of our next chapter. We are looking forward to telling you more about it at our investor day in May of this year. Though what I'm certain about is that Gustav Söderström will take the opportunity to tease some of that, hopefully not giving away all of it. With that, I will pass it over to Gustav Söderström. Thank you, Alex Norström. I will try to contain myself. In 2025, we launched more than 50 new features and innovations. Shout out to Prompted Playlist, Page Match, and About the Song that all launched very recently, actually, in the last few weeks.

You might be wondering about our Focus for 2026. We are framing it. We are framing it as the year of raising ambition. We were founded to solve, what we felt like the what we felt like the impossible and ambition has been the driving force behind our success from our earliest days.

An ambition will be a guiding principle of our next chapter. We are looking forward to telling you more about our, um, more about it at our Investor Day in May of this year. Uh, though what I'm certain about is that Gustav will take the opportunity to see some of that, hopefully not giving away all of it.

Gustav Söderström: Thank you, Alex Norström. I will try to contain myself. In 2025, we launched more than 50 new features and innovations. Shout out to Prompted Playlist, Page Match, and About the Song that all launched very recently, actually, in the last few weeks. So I think it's fair to say that we more than delivered on our bold ambitions of last year, pushing every boundary and driving engagement even higher. Now, I think it's important to zoom out, as I know there's been a lot of commentary around AI over the last few weeks and actually last several months. Like any significant global shift, we know that there will be winners and losers.

And, um, with that, I will pass it over to Gustav. Thank you, Alex. I—I will try to contain myself.

Alex Norström: So I think it's fair to say that we more than delivered on our bold ambitions of last year, pushing every boundary and driving engagement even higher. Now, I think it's important to zoom out, as I know there's been a lot of commentary around AI over the last few weeks and actually last several months. Like any significant global shift, we know that there will be winners and losers. But there's no question in my mind that we will continue to be one of the big beneficiaries of AI. I'm expecting a lot of questions on AI in the Q&A, so let me share a bit more upfront. My view is that new technology is seldom disruptive on its own. Significant disruption happens when new technologies enable new asymmetric business models. For example, this is what Spotify did to music downloads. This is what Uber did to taxi service.

Uh, in 2025, we launched more than 50 new features in Innovations. Shout out to Prompted Playlist, Page Match, about the song—all launched very recently, actually in the last few weeks.

so I think it's fair to say that we more than delivered on our bold Ambitions of last year, pushing every boundary and driving engagement, even higher,

Now I think it's important to zoom out, as I know there's been a lot of commentary around AI over the last few weeks, and actually the last several months.

Gustav Söderström: But there's no question in my mind that we will continue to be one of the big beneficiaries of AI. I'm expecting a lot of questions on AI in the Q&A, so let me share a bit more upfront. My view is that new technology is seldom disruptive on its own. Significant disruption happens when new technologies enable new asymmetric business models. For example, this is what Spotify did to music downloads. This is what Uber did to taxi service.

Like any significant global shift, we know that there will be winners and losers, but there's no question in my mind that we will continue to be one of the big beneficiaries of AI.

I'm expecting a lot of questions on AI in the Q&A, so let me share a bit more upfront.

My view, is that new technology is seldom disruptive on its own.

Asymmetric business models.

Alex Norström: So the question everyone should be asking is: does this evolution create new business models, or are we mostly just seeing new technologies? For example, in SaaS, there is currently a lot of fear that the perceived business model will be challenged by more outcome-based models, which is reasonable. However, in the consumer space that we are in, we believe the dominant business model will continue to be ads plus subscription, both places where Spotify excels. This puts Spotify in an outstanding position because we already have the right business model. Our job then just becomes leveraging these new technologies to our benefit, which is something that we've done consistently for the last 18 years. Another reason that we are in a strong position is that we have been building for this moment for some time.

Gustav Söderström: So the question everyone should be asking is: does this evolution create new business models, or are we mostly just seeing new technologies? For example, in SaaS, there is currently a lot of fear that the perceived business model will be challenged by more outcome-based models, which is reasonable. However, in the consumer space that we are in, we believe the dominant business model will continue to be ads plus subscription, both places where Spotify excels. This puts Spotify in an outstanding position because we already have the right business model. Our job then just becomes leveraging these new technologies to our benefit, which is something that we've done consistently for the last 18 years. Another reason that we are in a strong position is that we have been building for this moment for some time.

For example, this is what Spotify did to music downloads. This is what Uber did to taxi service.

So the question everyone should be asking is, does this Evolution create new business models? Or are we mostly just seeing new technologies?

For example, in SAS, there is currently a lot of fear that the perceived business model will be challenged by more outcome based models, which is reasonable.

However, in the consumer's base that we are in,

We believe the dominant business model will continue to be ads to our subscription.

Both places with Spotify Excel.

This puts Spotify in an outstanding position because we already have the right business model.

Our job then just becomes leveraging these new technologies to our benefit, which is something that we've done consistently for the last 18 years.

Another reason that we are in a strong position.

Alex Norström: Back in 2021, we saw the potential of AI that would be able to think and speak at the level of a human. So we acquired AI voice platform Sonantic in 2022. And this put us on an early path to introduce agentic experiences to Spotify users. One example of this is the wildly popular Interactive DJ, which we introduced in 2023 and have continued to enhance since then. About 90 million subscribers have used iDJ so far, driving over 4 billion hours of time spent on Spotify, and this keeps growing. More recently, we also launched Prompted Playlist, a new tool that has instantly taken off with power users. So if Interactive DJ is the chat interface to Spotify where you can talk casually, Prompted Playlist is the deep research mode of Spotify.

Gustav Söderström: Back in 2021, we saw the potential of AI that would be able to think and speak at the level of a human. So we acquired AI voice platform Sonantic in 2022. And this put us on an early path to introduce agentic experiences to Spotify users. One example of this is the wildly popular Interactive DJ, which we introduced in 2023 and have continued to enhance since then. About 90 million subscribers have used iDJ so far, driving over 4 billion hours of time spent on Spotify, and this keeps growing. More recently, we also launched Prompted Playlist, a new tool that has instantly taken off with power users. So if Interactive DJ is the chat interface to Spotify where you can talk casually, Prompted Playlist is the deep research mode of Spotify.

Is that we have been building for this moment for some time.

Back in 2021, we saw the potential of AI that would be able to think and speak at the level of a human.

So we acquired AI voice platforms, Semantics, in 2022.

And this put us on an early path to introduce identical experiences to Spotify users.

One example of this is the widely popular interactive DJ, which we introduced in 2023 and have continued to enhance since then.

About 90 million subscribers have used idj so far driving over 4 billion hours of time, spent on Spotify and this keeps growing.

More recently, we also launched Prompted Playlists, a new tool that has instantly taken off with power users.

Alex Norström: It lets you describe and set rules for your own personalized playlists, literally writing your own algorithm. It taps into your entire Spotify listening history, reflecting not just current obsessions but the full arc of your music taste, and integrates up-to-the-minute culture pulled from the internet. There is nothing else like it. All of this teases the next evolution of Spotify, delivering the world's most intelligent agentic media platform, one that you can literally talk to, that fully understands each individual listener and puts them in the driver's seat. It's about moving from a passive experience to an interactive one. This is a stark contrast to most media services today. Innovation like this drives retention and time spent on Spotify, enhancing custom LTVs and monetization potential. The momentum is undeniable.

Gustav Söderström: It lets you describe and set rules for your own personalized playlists, literally writing your own algorithm. It taps into your entire Spotify listening history, reflecting not just current obsessions but the full arc of your music taste, and integrates up-to-the-minute culture pulled from the internet. There is nothing else like it. All of this teases the next evolution of Spotify, delivering the world's most intelligent agentic media platform, one that you can literally talk to, that fully understands each individual listener and puts them in the driver's seat. It's about moving from a passive experience to an interactive one. This is a stark contrast to most media services today. Innovation like this drives retention and time spent on Spotify, enhancing custom LTVs and monetization potential. The momentum is undeniable.

So, if interactive DJ is the chat interface to Spotify, where you can talk casually promptly, playlist, is the Deep research mode of Spotify. It lets you describe and set rules for your own personalized playlists, literally writing your own algorithm.

It Taps into your entire Spotify, listening history, reflecting not not just current obsessions, but the full Arc of your music taste and integrates up to the minute. Culture pulled from the internet. There is nothing else like it.

So all of this thesis—the next evolution of Spotify—delivering the world's most intelligent, agentic media platform.

One that you can literally talk to.

That fully understands each individual listener and puts them in the driver's seat.

It's about moving from a passive experience to an interactive one.

This is a stark contrast to most media services today.

Innovation like this drives retention and time spent on Spotify.

Enhancing customer ltvs and monetization potential.

Alex Norström: Looking at the US alone, monthly streaming hours per user have grown more than 20% in the last five years, and we feel well-positioned to make continued gains here. Another example of interactivity is the smashing success of our new mixing tools. We recently hit a milestone of 50 million mixed playlists, and listeners are now making more than 1 million transitions per day, building yet another unique data set that improves our experience. People don't just want to listen. They want to actively participate in the music. They want to shape it. This is now becoming possible in ways that were previously unimaginable. So on that note, there is obviously a lot of conversation around AI and music right now. So let me just share how we think about it.

Gustav Söderström: Looking at the US alone, monthly streaming hours per user have grown more than 20% in the last five years, and we feel well-positioned to make continued gains here. Another example of interactivity is the smashing success of our new mixing tools. We recently hit a milestone of 50 million mixed playlists, and listeners are now making more than 1 million transitions per day, building yet another unique data set that improves our experience. People don't just want to listen. They want to actively participate in the music. They want to shape it. This is now becoming possible in ways that were previously unimaginable. So on that note, there is obviously a lot of conversation around AI and music right now. So let me just share how we think about it.

And the momentum is undeniable. Looking at the US alone, monthly streaming hours per user have grown more than 20% in the last five years.

And we feel well-positioned to make continued gains here.

Another example of interactivity is the smashing success of a new mixing tool.

We recently hit a milestone of 50 million mixed playlists, and listeners are now making more than 1 million transitions per day.

Building, yet another unique data set that improves our experience.

People don't just want to listen—they want to actively participate in the music; they want to shape it.

This is now becoming possible in ways that were previously unimaginable.

So on that note, there is obviously a lot of conversation around Ai and music right now.

Alex Norström: We see two distinct categories emerging: one, artists making original music from scratch; and two, new versions of existing music, like covers or remixes. The first category means a lot of net new music and more content than ever being delivered to Spotify. Importantly, a growing catalog has always been very good for us because it attracts new users, drives engagement, and builds fandoms. As more artists incorporate AI tools, the lines around making music are blurring. But while the music may be generated on various AI platforms, the point is that regardless of where the music is made, the cultural moment always happens on Spotify. That is where all music charts and finds an audience. This is because Spotify has long been the place that delivers both the largest reach and monetization opportunities. The second category is derivatives, new takes on existing music.

Gustav Söderström: We see two distinct categories emerging: one, artists making original music from scratch; and two, new versions of existing music, like covers or remixes. The first category means a lot of net new music and more content than ever being delivered to Spotify. Importantly, a growing catalog has always been very good for us because it attracts new users, drives engagement, and builds fandoms. As more artists incorporate AI tools, the lines around making music are blurring. But while the music may be generated on various AI platforms, the point is that regardless of where the music is made, the cultural moment always happens on Spotify.

So let me just share how we think about it.

We see two distinct categories emerging: one, artists making original music from scratch.

And 2 new versions of existing music, like covers a remixes.

The first category means a lot of net new music, and more content than ever is being delivered to Spotify.

Importantly, a growing catalog has always been very good for us because it attracts new users, drives engagement, and builds fandoms.

As more artists incorporate AI tools, the lines around making music are blurring.

Gustav Söderström: That is where all music charts and finds an audience. This is because Spotify has long been the place that delivers both the largest reach and monetization opportunities. The second category is derivatives, new takes on existing music. Everything we see tells us listeners want to interact with their favorite music, and many artists want to let them, creating new revenue from their existing catalog. In other media, like movies and TV, existing IP is incredibly valuable. But in music, artists haven't had a real way to monetize existing catalog through AI because the absence of a rights framework has kept AI mostly focused on the first category, net new creation.

But while the music may be generated on various AI platforms, the point is that, regardless of how the music is made, the cultural moment always happens on Spotify. That is what drives all music charts and finds an audience.

This is because Spotify has long been the place that delivers both the laws, reach, and monetization opportunities.

Alex Norström: Everything we see tells us listeners want to interact with their favorite music, and many artists want to let them, creating new revenue from their existing catalog. In other media, like movies and TV, existing IP is incredibly valuable. But in music, artists haven't had a real way to monetize existing catalog through AI because the absence of a rights framework has kept AI mostly focused on the first category, net new creation. We want to work with the industry to fix that. If you're an artist looking to unlock this potential upside, you'd want to do it on the world's leading music platform. Your fans and the largest royalty pool are already there. We have the technology and capabilities ready to unlock this in a way that is additive for both IP rights holders and Spotify.

The second category is derivatives—new takes on existing music.

Everything we see tells us listeners, want to interact with their favorite music.

And many artists want to let them create new revenue from their existing catalog.

in other media like movies and TV existing IP is incredibly valuable

But in music artists haven't had a real way to monetize existing catalog through AI.

Gustav Söderström: We want to work with the industry to fix that. If you're an artist looking to unlock this potential upside, you'd want to do it on the world's leading music platform. Your fans and the largest royalty pool are already there. We have the technology and capabilities ready to unlock this in a way that is additive for both IP rights holders and Spotify.

Because the absence of a rights framework has kept AI mostly focused on the first category, net New Creation.

We want to work with the industry to fix that.

If you're an artist looking to unlock this potential upside,

The world's leading music platform.

Your fans and the largest royalty pool are already there.

Alex Norström: And as we've said before, we intend to do this in the right way, with artist support, not around them. In fact, many artists and industry partners see this opportunity, and we are already working with them on realizing it. With so much out there, you may be wondering if we can keep up this pace in shipping. In fact, we think we not only can, but we think we can increase it. We've been embracing and investing in this technology evolution for some time, and it's allowing us to move with much higher speed. As a concrete example, an engineer at Spotify, on their morning commute from Slack on their cell phone, can tell Claude to fix a bug or add a new feature to the iOS app.

Gustav Söderström: And as we've said before, we intend to do this in the right way, with artist support, not around them. In fact, many artists and industry partners see this opportunity, and we are already working with them on realizing it. With so much out there, you may be wondering if we can keep up this pace in shipping. In fact, we think we not only can, but we think we can increase it. We've been embracing and investing in this technology evolution for some time, and it's allowing us to move with much higher speed. As a concrete example, an engineer at Spotify, on their morning commute from Slack on their cell phone, can tell Claude to fix a bug or add a new feature to the iOS app.

We have the technology and capabilities ready to unlock this in a way that is additive for both IP rights holders and Spotify.

And as we've said before we intend to do this in the right way with our to support, not around them.

In fact, many artists and industry partners see this opportunity, and we are already working with them on realizing it.

with so much out there, you may be wondering if we can keep up this pace and shipping

In fact, we think we not only can, but we think we can increase it.

We've been embracing and investing in this technology evolution for some time.

And it's allowing us to move with much higher speed.

As a concrete example.

Alex Norström: And once Claude finishes that work, the engineer then gets a new version of the app pushed to them on Slack on their phone so that he can then merge it to production, all before they even arrived at the office. We call this system internally Honk, and we've been told by key AI partners that our work here is industry-leading. Now, as Daniel said in his remarks, we are a tech company, and we consider ourselves the R&D department for the music industry. Our job is to understand new technologies quickly and capture their potential, which we've done time and again. The entire industry stands to benefit from this paradigm shift, but we believe that those who embrace this change and move fast will benefit the most. Now I'll pass it over to Christian to take you through the numbers.

Gustav Söderström: And once Claude finishes that work, the engineer then gets a new version of the app pushed to them on Slack on their phone so that he can then merge it to production, all before they even arrived at the office. We call this system internally Honk, and we've been told by key AI partners that our work here is industry-leading. Now, as Daniel said in his remarks, we are a tech company, and we consider ourselves the R&D department for the music industry. Our job is to understand new technologies quickly and capture their potential, which we've done time and again. The entire industry stands to benefit from this paradigm shift, but we believe that those who embrace this change and move fast will benefit the most. Now I'll pass it over to Christian to take you through the numbers.

An engineer at Spotify, on their morning commute, from Slack on their cell phone, can tell Claude to fix a bug or add a new feature to the iOS app.

And once Claude finishes that work, the engineer then gets a new version of the app pushed to them on slack on their phone.

So that he can then merge it to production.

All before the event arrived at the office.

We call the system internally Honk, and we've been told by key AI partners that our work here is industry-leading.

Now, as Daniel said in his remarks, we are a tech company, and we consider ourselves the R&D department for the music industry.

Our job is to understand new technologies quickly and capture the potential, which we've done time and again.

the entire industry stands to benefit from this paradigm shift, but we believe that those who Embrace this change and move fast will benefit the most

Christian Luiga: Thanks, Gustav, and thanks everyone for joining us. I'll cover the Q4 results and provide some perspective on our outlook. Unless otherwise noted, all reference growth metrics are presented on a year-over-year constant currency basis. Overall, we're pleased with our strong Q4 finish. Total revenue grew at an accelerated 13% to EUR 4.5 billion. Premium revenue rose 14% versus 13% last quarter and was primarily driven by subscriber growth. Our advertising business grew 4% versus flat last quarter. On a like-for-like basis, excluding the effects of our podcast optimization strategies, we had roughly 7% advertising growth. We are encouraged by the progress we're seeing in terms of market adoption of our new advertising tools and continue to expect improved growth in the second half of 2026. Moving to profitability, gross margin came in at 33.1%, expanding just over 80 basis points year-over-year.

Now, I'll pass it over to Christian to take you through the numbers.

Thanks, Gustav. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. I'll cover the Q4 results and provide some perspective on our outlook. Unless otherwise noted, all referenced growth metrics are presented on a year-on-year constant currency basis.

Christian Luiga: We are encouraged by the progress we're seeing in terms of market adoption of our new advertising tools and continue to expect improved growth in the second half of 2026. Moving to profitability, gross margin came in at 33.1%, expanding just over 80 basis points year-over-year. Our art performance here was primarily driven by content cost favorability. Operating income of EUR 701 million was EUR 81 million above forecast, of which social charges had a positive impact of EUR 67 million due to share price movements. The remaining variance to guidance was driven by the gross margin performance. Finally, free cash flow was EUR 834 million in Q4, and we ended the quarter with EUR 9.5 billion in cash and short-term investments.

Overall, we’re pleased with our strong quarter for finish. Total revenue grew at an accelerated 13% to $4.5 billion. Premium revenue rose 14% versus 13% last quarter and was primarily driven by subscriber growth. Our advertising business grew 4%, versus flat last quarter. On a like-for-like basis, excluding the effects of our podcast optimization strategies, we had roughly 7% advertising growth.

We are encouraged by the progress, we're seeing in terms of market. Adoption of our new ad advertising tools and continue to expect improved growth in the second half of 2026.

Christian Luiga: Our art performance here was primarily driven by content cost favorability. Operating income of EUR 701 million was EUR 81 million above forecast, of which social charges had a positive impact of EUR 67 million due to share price movements. The remaining variance to guidance was driven by the gross margin performance. Finally, free cash flow was EUR 834 million in Q4, and we ended the quarter with EUR 9.5 billion in cash and short-term investments. We repurchased $433 million worth of shares in Q4 and will continue to opportunistically return capital via share buybacks. In summary, Q4 capped off another year of healthy growth with profitability and cash flow improvement for us. On a full-year basis, 2025, revenue grew 13%, gross profit grew 20%, and operating income grew in excess of 50% to deliver a full-year margin of 13%.

Moving to profitability. Gross margin came in at 33.1% expanding just over 80 basis points year in year. Our, our performance here was primarily driven by content cost favorability.

Operating income of €701 million was €81 million above forecasts. Of this, social charges had a positive impact of €67 million due to share price movements. The remaining variance to guidance was primarily driven by the gross margin performance.

Christian Luiga: We repurchased $433 million worth of shares in Q4 and will continue to opportunistically return capital via share buybacks. In summary, Q4 capped off another year of healthy growth with profitability and cash flow improvement for us. On a full-year basis, 2025, revenue grew 13%, gross profit grew 20%, and operating income grew in excess of 50% to deliver a full-year margin of 13%.

Finally, free cash flow was $80,034 million in Q4, and we ended the quarter with $9.5 billion in cash and short-term investments.

Christian Luiga: Our free cash flow generation improved by approximately EUR 600 million to a record EUR 2.9 billion. Looking ahead to Q1, we are forecasting 759 million MAU, an increase of 8 million from Q4, and 293 million subscribers. In Q1, which is seasonally our smallest quarter, our subscriber outlook implies net additional 3 million. This is within our historical range for Q1. The effects of new pricing implementation in Q1 are considered in our forecast, and, as Alex mentioned, the churn with respect to these price increases is in line with our expectations. In addition, we remain very encouraged by the early benefits we're seeing to our funnel, thanks to the enhanced free tier that we rolled out in late Q3. We are well-positioned for conversion and continued healthy subscriber growth in 2026.

In summary quarter 4 Capp off, another year of health to growth with profitability and cash flow Improvement for us on a full year basis. 2025 Revenue growth 13%, gross profit grew, 20% and operating income grew in excess of 50%, to deliver a full year, margin of 13% and our free cash flow generation improved by approximately 600 million to a record 2.9 billion.

Looking ahead to Q1, we are forecasting 759 million MAU, an increase of 8 million from Q4, and 293 million subscribers.

In Q1, which is seasonally our smallest quarter, our subscriber outlook implies net additions of 3 million. This is within our historical range for Q1.

The effects of new pricing implementation in Q1 are considered in our forecast. And as Alex mentioned, the churn with respect to these price increases is in line with our expectations. In addition, we remain very encouraged by the early benefits we're seeing to our funnel, thanks to the enhanced free tier that we rolled out in late Q3.

Christian Luiga: We're also forecasting EUR 4.5 billion in total Q1 revenue, representing an improved growth rate of approximately 15% versus the 13% we just delivered in Q4. We're forecasting ARPA growth in the 5% to 6% range. Our revenue outlooks also incorporate the effects of unfavorable currency movements, which results in an incremental EUR 35 million headwind when compared to prior quarter exchange rates. We expect a Q1 gross margin of 32.8% and operating income of EUR 660 million. While we do not give full-year guidance for gross margin and operating margin, we are expecting both to improve in 2026. For gross margin, we expect our recent pricing adjustments to help drive revenue growth that outpaces the net content cost growth in 2026. That said, the quarterly progression of our margins could again be variable depending on the timing of disciplined investments in our core and monetization activities.

We are well positioned for conversion and continued healthy subscriber growth in 2026.

We're also forecasting $4.5 billion in total Q1 revenue, representing an improved growth rate of approximately 15% versus the 13% we just delivered in Q4.

We're forecasting, arpa growth in the 5 to 6% range. Our Revenue outlooks also incorporates the effects of unfavorable currency movements, which results in an incremental, 35 million headwind when compared to Prior quarter exchange rates.

Christian Luiga: While we do not give full-year guidance for gross margin and operating margin, we are expecting both to improve in 2026. For gross margin, we expect our recent pricing adjustments to help drive revenue growth that outpaces the net content cost growth in 2026. That said, the quarterly progression of our margins could again be variable depending on the timing of disciplined investments in our core and monetization activities.

Margin of 32.8% and operating income of $660 million.

While we do not give full-year guidance for gross margin and operating margin, we are expecting both to improve in 2026.

Christian Luiga: Finally, we expect our free cash flow generation to meaningfully exceed what we generated in 2025 while reflecting progression towards a normalized long-term tax rate. In conclusion, we're confident in our path into 2026 and will make further progress on driving top-line growth, disciplined reinvestments, and expect improved margin and cash flow. With that, I hand it back to you, Bryan.

Gross margin. We expect our recent pricing adjustments to help Drive Revenue growth that outpaces the net content cost growth in 2026. That said the quarterly progression of our margins. Could again be variable depending on the timing of discipline investments in our core and monetization activities.

Finally, we expect our free cash flow generation to meaningfully exceed what we generated in 2025, while reflecting progression towards a normalized, long-term tax rate.

In conclusion, we're confident in our path into 2026 and will make further progress on driving. Topline growth discipline reinvestments and expect improved margin and cash flow.

Bryan Goldberg: All right. Thanks, Christian. Again, if you've got any questions, please go to slido.com hashtag Spotify Earnings Q4 25. We'll be reading the questions in the order they appear in the queue with respect to how people vote up their preferences. And our first question today is going to come from Jessica Reif Ehrlich on AI opportunities. Across all sectors, the market is acutely focused on AI and its impact on current business models. How is Spotify planning to use AI tools and applications for new and evolving product offers, and will this eventually lead to new tiers of service?

With that, I hand it back to you, Brian.

All right. Thanks, Christian. Again, if you have any questions, please go to slido.com. As for Spotify earnings Q4 2025, we'll be reading the questions in the order they appear in the queue, with respect to how people vote up their preferences.

And our first question today is going to come from

Jessica reif erlick on AI opportunities.

Gustav Söderström: Thank you, Jessica. This is Gustav. I'll take this. This is a big question. I'll try to keep the answer to under 30 minutes. Just kidding. I tried to answer some of this upfront in my prepared remarks, but I want to say one additional thing. If we just zoom out and look at what is happening right now, it is the typical example of what is called a macro change, right? Now, Spotify has lived through many macro changes. I think it's important to know that while many people are scared in times of change, this is when there is the most opportunity. If you look at Spotify, it was born out of a macro change, which was ubiquitous, cheap broadband. That's how we got to scale. Then this next huge wave came across us called the smartphone. What happened? Spotify accelerated and started growing faster.

Across all sectors, the market is acutely focused on AI and its impact on current business models. How is Spotify planning to use AI tools and applications for new and evolving product offers, and will this eventually lead to new tiers of service?

Thank you, Jessica. This is Gustav. I'll take this, and, uh, there's a big question. I'll try to keep the answer to under 30 minutes.

I I try to answer some of this up from my prepared remarks but I want to say 1 additional thing. If we just zoom out and look at what is happening right now, is the typical example of what is called a macro change, right? Our Spotify has lived through many macro changes and I think it's important to know that while many people are scared in times of change. This is when there is the most opportunity.

Gustav Söderström: Then this next huge wave came across us called the smartphone. What happened? Spotify accelerated and started growing faster. Then the next macro wave came, which was called personalization. What happened? Spotify embraced it and grew even faster. Then the next thing came, which was the connected home. We all forgot about it now, but it was a big deal. What happened? Spotify started growing faster, over 2,000 integrations with hardware partners. The thing about macro change is that if you capture it, it's an opportunity, not a headwind. This is what we're focused on. And we feel very well-positioned for this opportunity.

If you look at Spotify, it was born out of a macro change, which was ubiquitous, cheap broadband. That's how we got to scale.

Gustav Söderström: Then the next macro wave came, which was called personalization. What happened? Spotify embraced it and grew even faster. Then the next thing came, which was the connected home. We all forgot about it now, but it was a big deal. What happened? Spotify started growing faster, over 2,000 integrations with hardware partners. The thing about macro change is that if you capture it, it's an opportunity, not a headwind. This is what we're focused on. And we feel very well-positioned for this opportunity. As I shared in my initial remarks, the first thing to look at is, do you even have the right business model? If you look at the AI companies, the business model is subscription and increasingly ads. That's what we excel at. So we have the right business model. And I don't see that changing for the consumer space.

And then this next huge wave came across, I was called the smartphone. What happened? Spotify accelerated and started growing faster.

Then the next microwave came, which was called personalization. What happened? What if I embraced it and grew even faster?

Then the next thing came, which was the connected home. We all forgot about it now, but it was a big deal. What happened Spotify started growing faster over 2,000 Integrations with hard and Hardware partners,

Gustav Söderström: As I shared in my initial remarks, the first thing to look at is, do you even have the right business model? If you look at the AI companies, the business model is subscription and increasingly ads. That's what we excel at. So we have the right business model. And I don't see that changing for the consumer space. So we feel very positioned from a structural point of view. On top of that, as I shared, we've been investing towards this opportunity for many years now because while it's happened faster than many people think, it was not impossible to foresee that this would happen. If you just believed in the exponential, we would get here.

The thing about macro change is that if you capture it, it's an opportunity—not a headwind. But this is what we focused on, and we feel very well positioned for this opportunity. As I shared in my initial remarks, the first thing to look at is: Do you even have the right business model? If you look at the AI companies, the business model is subscription and, increasingly, ads. That's what we excel at. So we have the right business model.

Gustav Söderström: So we feel very positioned from a structural point of view. On top of that, as I shared, we've been investing towards this opportunity for many years now because while it's happened faster than many people think, it was not impossible to foresee that this would happen. If you just believed in the exponential, we would get here. This is why we are leading in the market with these interactive, natural language-based services in terms of media platforms. So to be specific about what I'm excited about, I am excited about us being the first truly intelligent agentic media service that you can literally talk to. And this is not just a pipe dream. You can already talk to Spotify through the AI DJ casually, but also through prompted playlists in sort of a deep research way. We're going to keep investing in that.

And I don't see that changing for the consumer space.

So we feel very well positioned from a structural point of view.

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Q4 2025 Spotify Technology SA Earnings Call

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