Spotify now has 515 million monthly active users (MAUs), representing a 5% increase on the previous quarter and 22% increase on the corresponding period last year.
This is the first time Spotify has claimed a user base in excess of half-a-billion users, with 210 million premium subscribers and 317 million on the ad-supported plan. However, it represents a ratio of 40% paid-to-free listeners, a ratio that seems to be in free fall.
For comparison, Spotify’s premium subscribers constituted 46% of its overall user base in Q1 2019, falling to 45% in Q1 2020, 44% in Q1 2021, and 43% in Q1 last year, before dropping to just under 42% for the previous quarter.
A two-percentage point drop in the premium-to-free listeners ratio from quarter-to-quarter seems significant. It’s not clear how many premium subscribers may be switching to the free ad-supported tier, but it is clear that Spotify’s ad-supported user base is outpacing its
