Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSpotify posted middling results for the fourth quarter of 2021 — a period that does not include the recent controversy over Neil Young and other musicians removing their music from the streaming giant, which is the world’s largest paid music-subscription service.Premium subscribers grew to 180 million — up 8 million from the 172 million reported last year — and monthly average users grew 18% to 406 million, from 381 million.However, ARPU (average revenue per user) grew just 3% year over year in the quarter, and just 1% on a constant currency basis.
Ad-Supported revenue reached a record 15% of total revenue, according to the announcement, with gross margin at 26.5%.Spotify’s market capitalization fell about $2.1 billion over a three-day span last week after Young pulled his songs from the audio-streaming giant.
However, it quickly recovered on Monday — not after co-founder/CEO Daniel Ek announced on Sunday that the company would institute warnings and links to health information on podcasts that talked about Covid-19, but rather after Rogan himself posted a 10-minute video in which he agreed with Spotify’s new policies and would work to bring people on his show with broader perspectives.
Spotify stock closed Thursday at a 19-month low of $171.32/share, a day after the streamer removed Young’s music; it closed Wednesday (Feb.
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