Spotify passed 700 million monthly active users in Q3, with subscribers hitting 281 million, a 12 percent increase over the same period in 2024. Total revenue was $4.9 billion, up 12 percent year-over-year, while net income surged 200 percent to $1 billion, attributed to price hikes, subscriber growth and strict cost management. The Swedish company surpassed analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Revenue from premium subscriptions grew 9 percent in Q3. Advertising revenue for the period was down 6 percent, however, to about $515 million. Spotify recently integrated with ChatGPT so that users can get podcast and music recommendations from the popular chatbot.

“The business is healthy,” said Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek in a newsroom post. “We’re shipping faster than ever. And we have the tools we need — pricing, product innovation, operational leverage, and eventually the ads turnaround — to deliver both revenue growth and profit expansion.”

“Spotify announced in September that Ek will step down at the beginning of January and transition to the position of executive chairman,” with longtime co-presidents Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström set to replace him, writes CNBC.

The Q3 financial deck says the company launched 30 product updates, including lossless audio, messaging, taste profile controls, an enhanced mobile free tier and playlist mixing tools that let users do things like add transitions and synchronize tempos between songs.

“Spotify has built a platform of music, podcasts and audiobooks while identifying video offerings as an area for further growth,” reports The Wall Street Journal, noting that the company’s share price was up roughly 40 percent this year.

Video podcasts have been a bright spot. TechCrunch cites catalog growth to nearly half a million shows, with more than 390 million users having streamed a Spotify video podcast (+54 percent year-over-year).

Last summer, “the company said it had some 250,000 video podcasts as it rolled out tools that let non-hosted podcasters upload their videos to the platform,” TechCrunch writes. The streaming giant also worked to add user engagement features for podcasts, letting listeners interact “through comments, Q&As, and polls, making the app feel more like a social network.”

For listeners who are big video fans, the music streamer will be showing visual podcasts on Apple TV, notes Engadget, detailing features like adjustable playback speed. “It’s good timing as Spotify recently announced that some of its podcast videos will come to Netflix in early 2026,” Engadget adds.

Digital Trends runs down the many new features added to Spotify’s upgraded Apple tvOS app.

Related:
Spotify’s ‘Tunetorials’ Is a Sonic Leap in B2B Marketing, Adweek, 11/5/25
Netflix to Stream Selection of Spotify Video Podcasts Starting in 2026, Variety, 10/14/25