Spotify News: Streaming Service Beats Wall Street's Sales, Earnings Targets But Falls Short Of Subscriber Goal

Spotify Technology (SPOT) boasted further growth in overall subscriber numbers during its second-quarter earnings report but added fewer paying subscribers than forecasted.

The music streaming service, which has 232 million monthly users, announced that its paid subscriber base had passed 108 million, up 8 million from the first quarter, but below its forecast of 8.5 million.

Chief financial officer Barry McCarthy attributed the shortfalls in areas like student promotions as opposed to a lack of business.

“That’s on us,” McCarthy said, promising that the company will be able to make up for this underperformance.

The platform’s overall quarterly revenue was $1.86 billion, up 31 percent from the second quarter of 2018.

The Stockholm-based company is projecting a growth of 2 to 6 million paid subscribers in the third quarter, with further plans to hit between 120 and 125 million by the end of 2019. The platform’s podcast audience also grew by 50 percent from the first quarter and remains a major part of its plans for the future.

CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek highlighted Africa, Russia, and South Korea as major markets being targeted for further growth. Also, despite its shaky roll-out, the company claims that growth in India is in line with expectations.

Spotify remains the leading music streaming service, ahead of the likes of Apple Music with its 50 million paid subscribers. The platform has recently partnered with Disney to provide a specialized hub for the multi-media giant’s vast catalog of songs and original scores.