Spotify User Stats (Updated Oct 2021)

Spotify launched in October 2008 as a music streaming service.

It took Spotify over two years to reach the 1 million subscriber milestone.

Today, as a publicly traded company, Spotify has 165 million subscribers. And it has expanded beyond music, with more than 2.9 million podcast titles available.

Here’s an overview of what you’ll learn about Spotify in 2022:

• Spotify monthly active users
• Distribution of Spotify monthly active users by region
• Spotify paying subscribers
• Distribution of Spotify Premium subscribers by region
• Spotify revenue
• Spotify revenue by segment: Premium subscribers
• Spotify revenue by segment: ad-supported
• Spotify market share
• Spotify for podcasts
• What are the most popular podcasts on Spotify?
• What are the most popular podcast genres on Spotify?
• How many podcast titles are available on Spotify?
• In how many countries is Spotify available?
• Spotify availability by platform
• How many playlists are available on Spotify?
• What are the most popular playlists on Spotify?
• How many tracks are available on Spotify?
• Who are the most popular artists on Spotify?
• How many employees work at Spotify?

Spotify monthly active users

According to company-published data, Spotify has 365 million monthly active users. Spotify has seen consistent quarter-on-quarter growth of its active user base since 2015.

In fact, Spotify has added 133 million monthly active users over the last two years (Q2 2020 – Q2 2021).

According to insights shared in a recent Spotify shareholder letter, Spotify estimates that it will have 400-407 million monthly active users by the end of 2021. A forecasted increase of  17.97% compared to the same time last year.

Here’s a full breakdown of Spotify monthly user growth since 2015:

Sources: Spotify, Statista

Distribution of Spotify monthly active users

34% of Spotify’s monthly active users live in Europe. That equates to over 124.1 million monthly active users in the EU alone.

A further 46% of Spotify MAUs are based in North & Latin America.

Europe & North America combined make up the majority (58%) of Spotify’s active user base, totaling 211.7 million monthly active users.

Here’s the complete distribution of Spotify MAUs by region:

Source: Spotify

Spotify paying subscribers

Spotify has 165 million Premium subscribers worldwide. An increase from only 100 million subscribers in early 2019.

Spotify estimates that the audio streaming service is expected to have 177-181 million Premium subscribers by the end of 2021. An annual increase of at least 14.19% (assuming the lowest number in the forecasted range).

Here’s a complete breakdown of Spotify Premium subscriber growth since Q1 2015:

Sources: Statista, Spotify

Distribution of Spotify Premium subscribers by region

69% of Spotify Premium subscribers are based in Europe and North America.

Here’s the regional distribution of Spotify Premium subscribers:

Source: Spotify

Spotify revenue

Spotify is expected to register between $10.7 and $11.17 billion (€9.26 – 9.66b) in annual revenue by the end of 2021. An increase from $9.11 billion (€7.88b) in 2020.

Here’s a comprehensive overview of Spotify’s revenue since 2012:

Sources: Statista, Spotify

Spotify revenue by segment: Premium subscribers

Spotify has two revenue streams: subscription fees from Premium subscribers and an ad-supported business.

Spotify registered $8.25 billion (€7.13b) in revenue in 2020 from Premium subscribers.

In fact, Spotify’s Premium subscriber revenue has increased $1.2 billion (€1.04b) in 2020 alone.

For the first two quarters of 2021, premium revenue amounted to $4.6 billion (€3.98b).

We’ve charted the growth of Spotify revenue from Premium subscribers since 2012:

Sources: Spotify, Statista

Spotify revenue by segment: ad-supported users

Spotify generated $851 million (€745m) in annual ad revenue in 2020. An increase from $975.6 million (€542m) in 2018.

By the second quarter of 2021, ad-supported users generated $567 million (€491m) for Spotify.

Here’s an overview of Spotify’s ad-supported revenue since 2012:

Source: Spotify, Statista

Spotify market share

Spotify has a 33.8% market share in the music streaming space. Among the 487 million people that have a music streaming subscription, 165 million of them are subscribed to Spotify (as of mid-2021).

Over the past 5 years, Spotify’s market share has been consistently in the 32%-43% range. Although Spotify’s market share has decreased slightly over the past three years.

We’ve charted the Spotify market share among paying music streaming users since 2015:

Sources: Midia, Statista, Spotify

Spotify as a podcast listening app

Spotify is reported to be the 2nd most used app for listening podcasts in the US, with 40% of listeners frequently using it. That is a 33% increase from 2019.

For Android mobile phone owners in the US, Spotify, along with YouTube, is the most used app for podcast listening, with a 26% market share (up from 23% in 2020).

Among American millennials aged 18-34 who listen to podcasts on a regular basis, Spotify is the most used platform for podcasts (50% are frequently using it).

Source: Westwood One

What are the most popular podcasts on Spotify?

Globally, the Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast on Spotify. Other popular podcast streams include Crime Junkie and Call Her Daddy.

Here’s the complete list of the top 5 most popular podcasts on Spotify globally:

1. The Joe Rogan Experience
2. Crime Junkie
3. Call Her Daddy
4. The Daily
5. Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Source: Spotify

What are the most popular podcast genres on Spotify?

Among global Spotify podcast listeners, Society & Culture is the most popular podcast genre on the platform. Comedy and Lifestyle & Health round out the top 3 podcast genres on Spotify.

Here’s are the top 5 most popular podcast genres among Spotify’s worldwide audience:

1. Society & Culture
2. Comedy
3. Lifestyle & Health.
4. Arts & Entertainment.
5. Education.

Source: Spotify

How many podcasts are available on Spotify?

Spotify has over 2.9 million podcasts in its catalog. An increase of 5.8x since 2019.

Spotify added 1,700,000 new podcasts in 2020 alone.

Sources: The Guardian, Spotify

In how many countries is Spotify available?

Spotify is currently available in 178 countries. Since 2020, Spotify has expanded its presence to additional 85 countries.

Back in 2017, Spotify was available in 61 markets across the world. Between 2018 and 2021, the audio streaming service became available in 117 additional countries.

Sources: Spotify, TechCrunch, Wikipedia

Spotify app geographic availability by platform

According to Appfigures data, the iOS Spotify mobile app is available for download in 157 countries in the App Store.

As of October 2021, Spotify is available in 90% of countries where the iOS App Store operates.

Besides their desktop offering, the Spotify Music app is available for install on smart TVs via the Roku Channel Store. Spotify for Roku is available in all 17 countries where Roku operates.

In the Amazon App Store, the Spotify app is available in 9 countries among the 11 countries where the Amazon App Store works. The two excluded countries are China and Japan.

Source: Appfigures

How many playlists are available on Spotify?

Spotify has over 4 billion playlists available in its catalog.

The audio streaming platform has added over 1 billion new playlists in 2020 alone.

Source: Spotify

What are the most popular playlists on Spotify?

All of the top 20 most-followed playlists on Spotify are curated by the company itself.

50% of Spotify’s top 20 most followed playlists are personalized.

Categorized by genre, 50% of the top 20 Spotify playlists feature pop music. While pop and Latin music genres are responsible for 10% of total playlist popularity.

70% of Spotify’s top 20 most followed playlists are composed of mostly new tracks (tracks less than 18 months old).

The remaining 30% of Spotify’s top 20 most popular playlists include a minority of new tracks (tracks less than 18 months old).

Spotify has 27 playlists with over 5 million followers.

Here’s the ranking of the top 20 most followed playlists on Spotify:

Source: Charmetric, Hypebot

How many tracks are available on Spotify?

Spotify has over 70 million tracks on the platform as of late 2021, according to company data. An increase from 50 million tracks in early 2020.

By the end of 2021, Spotify is expected to upload 22 million more tracks (an average of 60,000 tracks per day, or almost one in every second).

Sources: Music Business Worldwide, Spotify

Who are the most popular artists on Spotify?

Ed Sheeran is the most popular artist on Spotify, with 85.77 million monthly listeners. An estimated 23.5% of Spotify’s monthly active users have listened to Ed Sheeran.

Here’s are the top 20 most popular artists on Spotify ranked by the number of monthly listeners:

In 2020, the most streamed artist among the global Spotify audience was Bad Bunny.

Sources: Charmetric, Spotify

How many people work at Spotify?

According to a Spotify press release, 7,085 employees work at the company as full-time employees. Employee count has grown by 60.8% since 2019.

We’ve charted the growth of Spotify’s employee headcount since 2011:

According to Spotify’s annual report, the average annual salary of a full-time employee at Spotify was €122,814 in 2019. Spotify’s spending on wages and salaries per full-time employee has increased by 9.63% for a year.

Sources: Spotify, Statista.

Conclusion

You made it! That wraps up my list of Spotify users and revenue statistics.

Even though Spotify is a public company, they don’t publish a lot of their data in one place. So I did my best to compile facts and figures available from a range of sources. That way, you could easily find the data that you’re interested in.

Spotify has gone beyond music with major investments in podcasts and video. Yet, the company is still not profitable as of late 2021.

Now I want to hear from you:

Do you have any suggestions for this collection of Spotify statistics? Or questions about the data listed here?

Go ahead and leave a quick comment below.