Spotify announced Tuesday that it hit 751 million total monthly active users (MAUs) for quarter-four of 2025. That record-high is an 11 percent jump from the year before and a significant bump from the third quarter's 713 million MAUs. The quarterly earnings report also showed a 10 percent jump year-over-year in Premium subscribers, from 263 million to 290 million. Europe makes up the greatest number of the Swedish company's premium subscribers (36 percent), with North America coming second at 25 percent.
Starting this spring in the U.S. and U.K., Spotify users will be able to purchase physical books through the music streaming app thanks to a partnership with Bookshop.org. Audiobook listeners can click a link to purchase a physical copy, with Bookshop.org handling the transaction. Spotify has offered audiobooks since 2022, but the company says a large chunk of readers still want physical copies.
If you use Spotify and enjoy looking up lyrics for songs, you'll be happy. Spotify is rolling out an update that brings lyrics up into the Now Playing screen and right into view. The update is apparently a server-side one and has been spotted by a few Reddit users. They began noticing the current song lyric showing up just under the album art in the Now Playing main screen.
Spotify is adding group chats to the messaging service it premiered last year. In an addendum to the original blog post introducing Messages, the company announced that users can initiate chats with up to 10 of their friends to share the podcasts, playlists and songs they are listening to. The in-app messaging feature, which was released last August, works to keep users on the app instead of navigating to another platform to share content with friends.
It's an impressive-sounding number that's a full $1 billion more than it paid last year. And, according to Spotify, that accounts for roughly 30 percent of the entire recording industry's revenue. And, according to Spotify, that accounts for roughly 30 percent of the entire recording industry's revenue. This figure, however, is purely a measure of royalties paid to the music industry and does not include merch or ticket sales, nor does it include audiobook royalties or podcasting deals.
In an audacious action starting to attract media attention, last month a group of piracy actors called Anna's Archive copied about 86 million music files from Spotify. The intention was to release the hoard on the BitTorrent file-sharing platform. All three of the major labels (UMG, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group), along with Spotify, launched the unsurprising lawsuit in September. The presiding judge, Jed . Rakoff, issued an injunction (HERE).
And, make no mistake, they will be five songs you're really into right now, because that's how many of these services work-and it's not because everyone else has the same taste in music as you. For instance, any Spotify playlist that says "created for" in the header is catered to the individual user, based on their listening history. There's nothing wrong with that, necessarily-it can be nice to know you're going to hear songs you like. But there are downsides.
Spotify is rolling out more social features to keep people on the platform. It's adding a new tool to its messaging platform that lets users see what their friends and family members are listening to in real time. Once activated, a user's listening activity will be displayed at the top of the chat. The other person in the chat can tap the bar to play a particular track, save it or react with an emoji.
Downdetector is showing over 10,000 reports. My boyfriend texted me those dreaded four words: "Is your Spotify down?" Sure enough his, mine and thousands of other users' Spotify accounts appear to be down and out at the moment, with Downdetector recording over 10,000 reports from users.
The primary metric, first to be presented, is listening time for the year ... offered in minutes and days. Following that, we learn that we listened to 387 genres. That surprised us, not because of the range, but because we wouldn't have estimated that 387 music genres exist. We learn about our top genres, with more than a little surprise - and being surprised is one of the most appealing features of this annual exploration.
Evans said in conversation with Beauty Inc editor in chief and WWD executive editor of beauty Jenny B. Fine. "When we talk about fandom, it really is different than just a community. The defining thing is that as fans or listeners, for your favorite music or podcast, it's how you engage with and interact with your favorite artists, podcasters and creators. So we say that Spotify is made by fans, for fans."
The second set of tools is showcased in a new, interactive feature called SongDNA, which shows which songs are being sampled in a given track, who has covered the tune, and what other projects the song's collaborators may have been involved in. TechCrunch reported in October that Spotify was developing the SongDNA feature as a way to help users discover music through a song's credits, after references to the feature were spotted in the app's code by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong.
For instance, the Premium Lite plan priced at ₹139 per month ($1.57) will get ad-free listening and 160kbps audio quality. The Premium Standard plan, priced at ₹199 per month($2.25), has offline support and 320kbps audio quality. The most costly Premium Platinum plan at ₹299 ($3.37) per month will give users access to the newly launched Lossless tier, along with two other seats that can share the account.