According to PYMNTS.com, Spotify announced during its third-quarter 2025 earnings report on November 4 that it crossed 700 million monthly active users, hitting 713 million with 11% year-over-year growth. Subscribers grew 12% to 281 million while revenue jumped 7% to 4.3 billion euros (about $4.9 billion). Founder Daniel Ek, who’s transitioning to chairman after 19 years, said the company is “shipping faster than ever” with engagement at all-time highs. Current co-presidents Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström are set to become co-CEOs on January 1. The company’s strategy has evolved from building a music library to creating what it calls the “operating system for global listening,” integrating music, podcasts, audiobooks, AI, and creator tools into one ecosystem.
Sponsored content — provided for informational and promotional purposes.
The Audio OS Gamble
Here’s the thing about calling yourself an “operating system” – it sounds ambitious until you remember how many companies have failed at platform plays. Microsoft tried with Windows Phone. Google tried with Google+. Even Apple’s had its platform misfires. Spotify‘s betting that audio can become the next computing platform, but I’m not convinced the average user thinks of their music app as an operating system. They just want to hear their favorite songs or discover something new.
And that’s the real challenge. Spotify’s trying to be everything to everyone – music streaming, podcast network, audiobook platform, AI assistant, creator marketplace. That’s a lot of plates to keep spinning. Remember when they went all-in on podcasts with those huge exclusive deals? That strategy had mixed results at best. Now they’re layering on audiobooks and AI integrations while still paying out up to 70% of revenue in music royalties in some markets. That’s a brutal cost structure to innovate against.
The ChatGPT Move and AI Push
The Spotify in ChatGPT integration is actually pretty clever though. Letting people get song recommendations through conversational AI? That’s smart product thinking. But it also feels a bit defensive. Spotify’s watching the rise of agentic AI and thinking “we need to be in that conversation.” Literally.
The problem is, everyone’s doing AI right now. Apple’s got its own music AI plans, YouTube’s pushing AI features, and even TikTok’s algorithm is arguably more sophisticated than Spotify’s recommendation engine. Personalization was Spotify’s original moat, but that advantage is eroding fast as every platform gets smarter about what you like.
The Monetization Question
Let’s talk about that 446 million ad-supported user number. That’s huge – it’s more than the entire population of the United States. But free users don’t pay the bills like subscribers do. And with premium subscription growth slowing in mature markets, Spotify’s leaning hard into expanding what “listening” means to keep people engaged.
Audiobooks are the latest hope. They’ve tripled their English-language catalog to over 500,000 titles, and more than half of eligible premium users have tried them. Listening hours are up significantly. But here’s my question: are people really going to use Spotify as their primary audiobook app? The experience feels bolted on rather than native. And competing with Audible and Apple Books isn’t going to be cheap or easy.
Leadership in Transition
The co-CEO structure starting in January feels like a big gamble too. Tech history is littered with failed co-CEO arrangements. It worked for Salesforce for a while, but it’s notoriously difficult to make work long-term. Daniel Ek stepping back from day-to-day operations after 19 years is a major transition moment for the company.
Basically, Spotify’s at a crossroads. They’ve got the users – 713 million people is an incredible achievement. But turning that scale into sustainable profitability while transforming from a music app into an “audio operating system”? That’s the billion-euro question. The next year under new leadership will show whether this ambitious vision has real legs or if it’s just corporate storytelling to justify endless feature creep.
