Spotify Reaches 300 Million Premium Subscribers in Q2 2026

Spotify achieves 300 million premium subscribers with Q2 revenue up 14%. Co-CEO highlights continued growth and product innovation for the platform.

Spotify has reached a remarkable milestone as it hits 300 million premium subscribers in the second quarter of 2026, gaining 7 million paying customers, surpassing its previous guidance.

Total monthly active users, which include those on the ad-supported free tier, stood at 777 million at the end of Q2, slightly below the earlier estimate of 778 million. Spotify attributed this shortfall to ongoing “product optimizations” during the quarter.

In this quarter, the company reported revenue of €4.78 billion, reflecting a 14% increase and aligning with its forecast. Operating income amounted to €655 million, while the gross margin achieved an all-time high of 33.4%. Net income for the quarter was €545 million, notable compared to a net loss of -€86 million during the same quarter last year.

Subscription revenue grew by 15% to reach €4.33 billion, while ad revenue saw a modest increase of 1%, hitting €446 million. Regarding the rise in gross margin, Spotify explained this was largely driven by gains from the premium segment as revenue growth outpaced music costs, which exclude marketplace programs, audiobooks, and video podcast costs. On the ad-supported front, revenue gains were aided by favorable podcast impacts and tax returns.

Spotify also highlighted new initiatives launched in Q2, including ‘Reserved’ in the U.S., which provides an artist’s most loyal fans with exclusive early access to concert tickets, and ‘Personal Podcasts’, which allows users to generate personalized AI-powered audio episodes.

In conjunction with the Q2 earnings results, Spotify announced a new agreement with Merlin related to an upcoming fan-made covers and remixing tool. This tool will enable artists associated with labels that are under Merlin’s agreement to participate as a paid add-on, creating an additional revenue stream for those artists involved.

During the announcement of the results, co-CEO Alex Norström emphasized, “We have a scale that few companies in history have reached, a business that is healthy and compounding, and opportunities only we are positioned to pursue. Spotify lives across your whole day — the commute, the workout, studying, gaming, the dinner table, and sleep. At our scale, that is rare… Our position gives us an opportunity space as wide as our users want it to be.”

Co-CEO Gustav Söderström remarked, “This quarter demonstrated that we are already building that future: better engineering, faster shipping, new products and new ways for users to engage. We are still in the very early stages of what is possible and will continue to have a high bar for investments… Our job remains the same: understand the technology early and deeply, and turn it into something people love. Creating value for our stakeholders.”