Spotify reached 300 million premium subscribers globally in the second quarter after adding 7 million paid users, while revenue climbed 14% to €4.8 billion. The company reported €2.61 in earnings per share versus Wall Street’s €2.80 expectation, sending shares down more than 4% in premarket trading Tuesday. Spotify’s total monthly active users grew by 16 million to 777 million, a 12% year over year increase that fell just short of the company’s forecast for 17 million new users. Ad supported monthly users rose 14% to 494 million, while Spotify attributed the softer overall addition figure to ongoing product optimizations. The Subscriber Count Is Huge. What About the Business? Spotify’s operating profit surged 61% to €655 million, and gross margin reached a company record of 33.4%. Net income swung to €545 million, or €2.61 per share, compared with a net loss of €86 million, or 42 cents per share, during the same quarter last year. Premium revenue increased 15% as subscriber growth and higher average revenue per user benefited from price increases, although product and market mix limited some of that gain. Ad supported revenue rose 1%, helped by podcast performance and tax related factors, while automated ad sales remained the biggest contributor, music impressions increased despite softer pricing, and podcast sponsorships powered growth across Spotify’s owned and licensed shows. Spotify said operating expenses rose 3% because of temporary marketing and cloud and AI investments. The platform is also expanding beyond standard music subscriptions with creator memberships, Personal Podcasts, Reserved ticketing, higher hour audiobook add ons, Family and Student audiobook plans, and Studio by Spotify Labs; nearly 100,000 tickets have been reserved through its Live Nation partnership in the U.S., more than 500 million users have streamed a video podcast, and Spotify now lists 7 million podcast titles plus more than 700,000 audiobooks. The company’s Partner Program has driven a reported 140% increase in video podcast consumption since launch. Spotify also announced licensing agreements with Universal Music Group and Merlin that let users create authorized covers and remixes from participating catalogs, with artists and songwriters sharing in the resulting value.