Spotify Grows Subscriber Base Amid Ongoing Artist Royalty Disputes
Spotify recorded a strong end to 2025, adding millions of new paying customers despite continued criticism from some artists over royalty payments.
In its latest financial report released Tuesday, the Swedish streaming giant said premium subscriptions rose by 9 million in the final quarter of the year, bringing its total number of paid users to 290 million. The growth helped lift net profit to €1.17 billion during the same period.
Overall, Spotify now counts more than 750 million users worldwide, including both free and paid subscribers.
The company credited part of its recent momentum to the popularity of its annual “Spotify Wrapped” feature, which provides users with personalised summaries of their listening habits. According to the firm, the 11th edition of Wrapped attracted over 300 million engaged users and generated more than 630 million social media shares across 56 languages.
Spotify said it paid nearly $11 billion to rights holders in 2025. However, debate continues within the music industry about whether artists and songwriters receive fair compensation from streaming platforms. Some musicians have publicly criticised the company’s payout structure, with a number of artists boycotting Spotify-hosted events last year. In previous years, high-profile acts such as Taylor Swift withheld their music from the platform over similar concerns.
Chief executive Gustav Söderström described Spotify as an innovation driver within the audio industry, pointing to investments in emerging technologies such as video podcasts and artificial intelligence-generated music.
“Our role is to quickly understand and harness new technologies,” Söderström said, adding that the broader industry could benefit from advances in AI, particularly those willing to adapt swiftly.
The company also highlighted growth in its audiobook offerings as a factor in user expansion. Still, it acknowledged challenges ahead across music, podcasts, books, video, and live content, noting it would continue developing tools to address them.
British band Massive Attack became one of the latest groups to criticise the platform, announcing in September 2025 that it would step back from Spotify, describing the service as financially unsustainable for artists.
Spotify reported total revenue of $4.5 billion for the final quarter of the year. Following the earnings release, the company’s shares surged by about 15% in trading.
