Many sectors of the market, such as tourism, have been severely affected by the coronavirus emergency. However, the same cannot be said of Spotify: in the first quarter of 2020, the well-known music streaming platform registered a boom in subscribers, reaching 286 million monthly active users, of which 130 million are premium users.
Compared to the data of the last quarter of 2019, there was, therefore, a further increase: at 31 December 2019, monthly active users were 271 million, and premium users 124 million, with excellent performances in Europe. Also from a financial point of view, the results were better than analysts’ forecasts, with revenues of € 1.848 billion compared to the expected 1.71 billion.
In general, the data is probably attributable to the new life habits developed by users during the quarantine period: it also applies to podcasts, as also highlighted on Spreaker, which recorded a peak of new podcasts produced by new users. There are more and more people who, staying close at home, look for ways to have fun. Listening to streaming music is obviously one of them, and listening patterns are also changing.
The use in cars, with wearable devices or on web platforms has decreased, compared to an increase in use on TVs and gaming consoles (+ 50% compared to the same period of last year), during purely home activities such as cooking, tidy up, spend time with the family and relax. In short, the trend follows what has already been seen for other streaming services, including video services, which have recorded an increase in access.
The growth, however, is not uniform: in Italy and Spain, two generally good markets for Spotify but severely affected in recent weeks by the effects of the pandemic, there has been a decline in the number of active daily users and in the consumption of content; however, a trend that is reversing in conjunction with the stabilization of new cases.