Spotify Technology’s (NYSE: SPOT) bet that the popularity of podcasts and audiobooks would continue appears to have paid off for the music streaming company.
The company’s transformation over the past few years has resulted in Spotify finally turning its first full-year profitability in 2024, as shares of the company doubled over the past 12 months. In the past six months, the stock has risen by 27%.
Spotify’s expansion into offering hundreds of thousands of audiobooks and podcasts has helped it add more subscribers. The company’s monthly active users increased by 11% to 696 million during the second quarter, with the most growth from Europe, Latin America, and other global markets. Revenue also shot up to €4.2 billion, an increase of 10% year-over-year.
Founder and CEO Daniel Ek said he is turning over the reins of the music platform company to Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström, who will serve as co-CEOs together. Ek said on September 30 that he would step down from his role as CEO and serve as executive chairman of the company.
Norström and Söderström, who are currently serving as Spotify’s co-presidents, will take over starting on January 1.
“We couldn’t be better positioned. And to be clear, I’m not leaving. I’ll remain deeply involved in the big, defining decisions about our future,” said Ek in a note to employees.
For the past two years, Ek said he had delegated more decisions and responsibilities to the duo. As co-president and chief business officer, Norström is responsible for the company’s subscriptions, advertising, and content, while Söderström, who serves as co-president and chief product and technology officer, operates the product, design, and engineering divisions of Spotify.
The company plans to use artificial intelligence to grow the company by providing more personalized recommendations, Söderström told the Wall Street Journal.
“We think that consumer services are going to get even more personal with this new wave of AI,” Söderström said.
Adding more offerings
The company made an investment in the world of audiobooks in the fall of 2023 in an effort to capture the attention of more potential customers who are fans of listening to books.
Audiobooks have surged in popularity in recent years, with sales increasing by 13% in 2024, with 99% of the revenues generated by digital audiobooks, according to a recent survey conducted by the Audiobook Publishers Association.
Spotify’s investment in audiobooks was substantial, nearly tripling in size the number of its English-language offerings to over 400,000 titles.
Customers and publishers have been satisfied — Spotify reported that the number of listeners and listening hours to its audiobook collection rose by over 30% and 35% year-over-year, respectively, in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. In 2024, the company invested in launching audiobooks in France and the Benelux, which includes Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg — the number of listeners in those countries increased by a monthly average of 12%.
Publishers have seen sales grow quickly because of their partnership with Spotify. Bloomsbury, a U.K. publisher, reported its audio sales during its 2025 fiscal year “grew 57 percent partly due to its “new commercial relationship with Spotify” while U.S.-based HarperCollins reported that audiobook sales increased by 13% compared to the fourth quarter 2023, with its parent company News Corp pointing out Spotify’s “entrance into the audiobook market as a catalyst for that growth.”
Video podcasting has also been a favorite of Spotify users and has grown 20 times faster compared to audio podcasts. Over 350 million users played a video podcast on Spotify, the company said.
“It really is a very big thing that’s happening under the hood that’s going to impact our business,” Ek told the Wall Street Journal in July. “People are consuming really great content, and not just the latest 15-second video to get distracted by.”
Spotify’s decision to add audiobooks and podcasts will help it add more subscribers and will likely generate more profit down the road. Ek plans to focus on the company’s future and assist in decisions regarding investments. These two decisions could lead Spotify to become a one-stop shop for listeners to turn to for the latest music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
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