Spotify
Numbers
What the show said, with receipts
Every figure the hosts put on the record for Spotify, with its source and the date it was captured. The audited statements from the company's own filings are under Financials.
Freshness
0
Current (≤6 mo)
0
Recent (≤18 mo)
3
Older
Freshness is measured from each figure’s capture date, not from the episode date. An older figure is not wrong; it is a figure that has had time to move.
Reported figures
Monthly active users (2024 Q3)
2 yr~640M
of which ~252M are paid subscribers; free tier is the top-of-funnel, not a loss leader — it generates ad revenue
[Spotify Q3 2024 earnings] · as of 2024-09
Gross margin (2024)
3 yr~30%
vs ~70% for Apple Music; the difference is label royalties — Spotify pays ~70% of revenue to rights-holders vs Apple's lower blended rate across hardware+services
[Spotify 2024 disclosures + Acquired episode] · as of 2024
- David:Spotify's gross margin is around 25 to 30 percent. Apple Music's is probably north of 70 percent. The difference is that Apple sells hardware. Apple can afford to lose money on music because it sells iPhones. Spotify cannot.[Acquired Spotify Direct Listing, ch. The margin problem]
Direct listing reference price (2018)
9 yr$132/share (~$26B)
first major tech company to go public via direct listing; no new shares issued; no investment bank underwriting fee
[Acquired Spotify Direct Listing episode] · as of 2018-04
- Ben:Spotify chose a direct listing. No new shares. No underwriting fee. Existing shareholders sell directly to the market. It is novel and it worked.[Acquired Spotify Direct Listing, ch. The direct listing]