SPOTIFY HITS 100M PAID SUBS

Spotify said Monday in its Q1 earnings release that it has reached 100 million paid subscribers, a 32% year-over-year increase, as 4m new subscribers came to the party. The big reveal headlines the streamery’s Q1 earnings release.

Total revenue for the quarter was €1.51b ($1.69b), up 33% y-o-y, with subscription revenue representing 92% of the total with €1.39bn ($1.55b).

By contrast, ad-supported revenue of €126m ($140.7m) plummeted from the Q4 2018 tally of €175m, though it was still up 24% y-o-y.

“Ad-supported revenue growth underperformed our expectations in Q1, primarily in the U.S. and primarily with our sponsored-sessions video product,” the accompanying text noted. “The performance shortfall was pricing-related. We have course-corrected and are seeing strong growth across the ads business in Q2.”

The company attributed its better-than-expected operating loss of €47m ($52.5m) to higher gross profit and lower-than-expected marketing expenditures.

As it began Q2, Spotify had €1.7b ($1.9b) in cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments on hand.

Here's the breakdown: