It saw free and paid subscriber figures grow, despite calls for people to leave the service.
Despite a high-profile backlash over its support of controversial podcaster Joe Rogan and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Spotify has continued to thrive. The streaming behemoth today announced revised financial data for the first quarter of 2022, stating that its monthly user base climbed to 422 million. 182 million of them pay for Premium, with Spotify’s library of exclusive podcasts a big draw and one in which the company is constantly investing. Three million of those total users may have been acquired as a result of a log-in glitch, according to the business, but even with that factored in, growth was still beyond projections.
- According to reports, the Obamas are leaving Spotify.
- A Spotify executive who helped spearhead the company’s podcast effort is departing.
At the start of 2022, Spotify doubled down in support of Rogan who regularly interviews fringe and far right figures on his show. That included Dr. Robert Malone, who claims to have invented the mRNA technology used to create COVID-19 vaccines, a claim widely refuted by the people who actually did. Malone’s episode prompted a complaint from 270 healthcare professionals asking for Spotify to do more to combat vaccine misinformation. That was followed by artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, who withdrew their music from the service, and Brené Brown who paused her podcast, in protest at Spotify’s refusal to take down misinformation. The service said it would not drop Rogan, but eventually said it would add a content advisory label to episodes which repeated misinformation.
Not long after, and Spotify announced that it would fully suspend its service in Russia and close its offices in the territory, in protest at the invasion of Ukraine. While Spotify was reportedly the second-largest platform in Russia, it wasn’t a major contributor to the company’s revenue. In the documents, Spotify says that it believes it lost 1.5 million free users and an additional 600,000 which were paying for Premium as a consequence of cutting off the country. It added that those losses were more than compensated for with surging user growth in Latin America and Europe.
The company also reported a slender profit of €14 million, notwithstanding the vast sums spent to both buy Chartable and Podsights, as well as (reportedly) throw more than $300 million to F.C. Barcelona for the naming rights to its famous stadium, Camp Nou.Â
