Highlights from Spotify’s Q3 2024 earnings
Following the release of Spotify’s Q3 earnings report, here’s a recap of the highlights for Spotify Advertising and what they mean for advertisers.
This week, Spotify shared its third quarter 2024 earnings report. The total number of monthly active users (MAUs) increased to 640M globally (up 11% Y/Y)1, reflecting growth across all regions. Of these MAUs, 402M are ad-supported (up 11% Y/Y).2
Ad-supported revenue is up too—increasing by 6% Y/Y3 after Y/Y growth across all regions, driven by growth in impressions sold across music and podcasts. The Spotify Audience Network, which brings scaled, audience-based podcast buying to advertisers, continues to see Q/Q growth in participating publishers and advertisers.
"We’ve never been in a stronger position, thanks to the outstanding execution by our team," said Daniel Ek, Spotify's CEO. "We’re where we set out to be—if not a little further—and on a steady path toward achieving our long-term goals. This relentless pursuit of innovation and commitment to growth sets us up to deliver the most valuable user experience in the industry, while reinforcing the core strengths that make Spotify unique. I am very excited about what lies ahead for us."
Below, we round up the key moments of the quarter with a focus on what benefits these bring to advertisers looking to effectively engage audiences on Spotify.
1. Spotify Ads Manager gets an upgrade to help enable better ROI for self-serve advertisers
As Spotify continues to scale its advertising business, we’re investing in building a more flexible and automated offering for advertisers of all sizes; and in Q3 we reached a major milestone on that journey.
In July, we rebranded Spotify Ad Studio as Spotify Ads Manager, introducing new tools like Audience Interest Segments, dynamic ad formats such as Canvas and Opt-in video, as well as the Spotify Pixel to Ads Manager—meaning you can now create pixels and reports directly on the platform. Plus, we made significant investments in our Ads API, enabling us to scale to over 50 new markets worldwide. Learn more about Spotify Ads Manager and how it can drive results for your business, here.
2. Culture Next, our annual audience trends report, highlights the latest Gen Z trends we’re seeing on the platform.
Every year, we check in with Gen Z to hear how they’re shaping culture on Spotify and the world at large—before publishing our findings in our Culture Next report. Broken down into three distinct behavioral trends, the 2024 edition aims to help brands understand what inspires, captivates and drives this digitally native generation—and how to meaningfully connect with Gen Zs on our platform.
Top brand takeaways from Culture Next 2024:
- 74%
of Gen Zs agreed, “Brands that create playlists for specific moods and moments feel more in tune with my life."
(Source: Spotify Global Culture Next Vol 6 survey E1, July 2024) - 45%
of Gen Zs agreed, "A brand sponsoring live music events or concerts would make me more likely to buy that brand in the future."
(Source: Spotify Culture Next Vol 6 survey C6, July 2024)
3. New in-app features released to create further engagement opportunities for video advertisers
Fans interact with the Spotify app in many different ways, especially when they’re actively discovering new music or more about the artists or podcasters they’re tuning into. And now, with the roll-out of new features such as Music Videos, Countdown Pages, Clips and Live Events, there are even more ways for fans to engage with the app as they stream content.
This is great news for advertisers who want to reach their audiences through video. On Spotify, video ads are served between songs (sound-on) or during songs (muted/ opt-in), and only when we know our users are engaged with the app and looking at their screen. Learn more about our video ad offering, here.
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