Spotify paid subscribers (YoY growth):
1) 2017-Q3 – 62M
2) 2018-Q3 – 87M (↑ 40%)
3) 2019-Q3 – 113M (↑ 30%)
4) 2020-Q3 – 144M (↑ 27%)
Spotify ad-supported users (YoY growth):
1) 2017-Q3 – 91M
2) 2018-Q3 – 109M (↑ 20%)
3) 2019-Q3 – 141M (↑ 29%)
4) 2020-Q3 – 185M (↑ 31%)
Spotify share of total revenue from advertising:
1) 2017-Q3 – 11%
2) 2018-Q3 – 11%
3) 2019-Q3 – 10%
4) 2020-Q3 – 9%
Interesting: The average length of a song has continued to fall in recent years.
Why this matters: Spotify pays an artist on a per-stream basis once a track is played for 30+ seconds. This incentivizes artists to create shorter songs since a 2.5-minute song played twice is twice as valuable as a 5.0-minute song played once.