Spotify saw double-digit growth in the number of subscribers and monthly active users on its streaming service, the company said in its earnings report Wednesday (April 27).
According to the report, Spotify’s monthly active user (MAU) base rose 19% year-over-year to 422 million, or 419 million excluding a one-time benefit of 3 million users.
Spotify said it believes that figure stems from a brief service outage in March that caused users to be signed out of its service involuntarily. Some of those users created new accounts, resulting in about 3 million additional MAUs.
Meanwhile, the service’s premium subscribers grew 15% year-over-year to 182 million, “inclusive of approximately 1.5 million disconnects from the wind-down of our Russian operations,” the report said.
Read more: Spotify Grows Subscription Base; Touts New Revenue Streams
Spotify ended its operations in Russia last month following that country’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Spotify has continued to believe that it’s critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to provide trusted, independent news and information in the region,” the company said in a statement at the time.
“Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation further restricting access to information, eliminating free expression, and criminalizing certain types of news puts the safety of Spotify’s employees and possibly even our listeners at risk.”
Learn more: Spotify Downplays Joe Rogan Controversy During 2021 Q4 Earnings Update
In last year’s Q1 earrings report, Spotify credited Russia – among other countries – for helping contribute to a 24% growth in MAUs.
This year’s Q1 report showed Spotify hosting 4 million podcasts on its platform, up from 3.6 million at the end of the previous quarter.
“Growth in the number of MAUs that engaged with podcast content continued to outstrip total MAU growth, podcast consumption rates grew in the double digits Y/Y, and podcast share of overall consumption hours on our platform reached another all-time high,” the report said.
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