Spotify Adds 6m Premium Subs in Q3

Spotify keeps finding new ears—and more ways to monetize them. The streaming giant added 6m premium subscribers in Q3, bringing its paying customer base to 306m as monthly active users climbed to 788 million, up 11% year over year.

The company crossed the 300m premium-sub threshold in Q2, having added 7m, 1m above its own forecast. The latest results extend that momentum, with the company reporting subscriber gains in every region and key performance indicators meeting or exceeding guidance.

Revenue for the quarter reached €5b, up 16% year over year in reported terms; operating income rose to €672m, up from €582 million the previous year.

The quarter also saw Spotify push further into adjacent audio and creator businesses. The company plans to expand audiobooks from 22 markets to more than 180 by the end of 2026. The Spotify Partner Program, meanwhile, is rolling out to more than 35 additional markets, and creator memberships are expanding internationally, giving those eligible another way to offer exclusive content to fans.

Spotify is also betting on personalization to keep listeners engaged, introducing a beta version of Taste Profile—which lets U.S. premium users shape how the service understands their listening preferences in music, podcasts and audiobooks—alongside new playlist features.

Looking ahead, the Swedes forecast Q4 operating income of €820m and revenue of €5.2b and change, with premium subs expected to reach 316m.

Co-CEO Alex Norström summed it up thus: “This was a quarter where we did what we said—we’ve built a strong business that keeps compounding, we invest when we see a path for growth, our costs are moderating, and there is more runway ahead… Spotify not only enjoys industry-leading engagement, we have the most passionate and engaged music, podcast and book fans in the world on our platform. That’s why we continue to grow and take share.”

For his part, Co-CEO Gustav Söderström got into AI: “Spotify is in one of the few categories that actually stands to thrive in the agentic age. This is because agents excel at replacing and taking care of things people would rather not do. People love getting rid of chores. But entertainment is the opposite; nobody asks an agent to ‘summarize a song’ for them. The whole point of getting rid of those chores is to free up even more time for the things that you actually enjoy.”

In an Oct. 20 update marking a year of its efforts to prioritize human artistry amid the rise of generative AI, the company said it had removed more than 50m AI-generated “slop and spam” tracks from recommendations so far in 2026, in addition to more than 75m tracks removed for serious or repeated violations.

Likewise, changes to its recommendation systems have helped deliver more music made by human artists and reduced listener complaints about unwanted content.

The DSP further reported progress on tools intended to improve transparency and protect artists’ identities. More than 300,000 artists are now verified on the platform, representing more than 99% of the acts listeners search for, with independents accounting for over 70% of those verified.

And Spotify is preparing to make Artist Profile Protection, which allows performers to review releases attributed to them before those tracks appear on their profiles, available by year’s end.