Spotify stock soars 14% as Q2 earnings beat shows record profits

Spotify reported another quarter of record profits one year after it raised the price of its Premium plans for the first time ever.

The Swedish audio streaming company reported an operating income of 266 million euros ($289 million) in the second quarter, compared with a loss of 247 million euros ($268 million) a year ago. Monthly active users grew 14% annually to 626 million.

“It’s an exciting time at Spotify. We keep on innovating and showing that we aren’t just a great product, but increasingly also a great business,” CEO Daniel Ek in a statement. “We are doing so on a timeline that has exceeded even our own expectations. This all bodes very well for the future.”

Spotify stock popped almost 14% in pre-market trading Tuesday, following the company’s better-than-expected earnings report.

In June, Spotify said it was raising prices for Premium users in the U.S. Starting this month, users on individual plans will have to pay $1 more ($12), while those on Duo (two-person) plans will pay $2 more ($17) and those on Family plans will pay $3 more ($20). Last July, the Swedish company raised membership costs for the first time in 13 years by an average of $1.

Despite these price increases, Spotify added seven million net subscribers in the quarter — onemillion ahead of its previous guidance.

Spotify is the most popular audio streamer in the world, and its users are the least likely of any audio or video streaming giant to cancel their memberships, a Bloomberg analysis found.

But its financials haven’t always been so green. Spotify stock lost more than two-thirds of its value in 2022, as the company faced several quarters of operating losses. In January 2023, the company announced plans to cull 600 employees. Less than a year later, it cut 1,500 jobs, or roughly 17% of its staff.