Wrapped helps Spotify add users despite artists' criticism over fees

Music service Spotify has managed to boost the number of people streaming music, podcasts and audiobooks on the platform, despite increasing competition in the streaming industry.

Paid subscribers in the last three months of 2025 jumped by 9 million, to 290 million - helping net profit rise to €1.17bn, the music giant said in its financial results released on Tuesday.

Although the Swedish firm said it paid almost $11bn to artists, criticisms remain that the platform does not pay enough to musicians for having their songs on its platform.

Spotify has over 750 million users, comprised of paying and non-paying subscribers, who each get a curated summary of their listening habits at the year-end.

It highlighted its "Spotify Wrapped" feature for engaging users.

"Our 11th annual Wrapped was bigger, bolder and more layered than ever, celebrating fans, artists, creators and authors around the world," it said in its results. "Wrapped had more than 300 million engaged users and more than 630 million shares on social media globally in 56 languages".

Chief executive Gustav Söderström said the firm considered itself the research and development department of the music industry, by focussing on new developments in audio, such as adding video to podcasts, and embracing music made by artificial intelligence (AI).

"Our job is to understand new technologies quickly and capture their potential, which we've done time and again," he said. "The entire industry stands to benefit from this [AI] paradigm shift but we believe those who embrace this change and move fast, will benefit the most."

But the latest revenue figures come as a heated debate continues about how much money artists and songwriters receive in royalties. Various artists boycotted a Spotify party in 2025, and Taylor Swift famously refused to put her work on the platform for three years because the platform didn't pay enough.

The firm credited its expansion in users partly to audio e-books, though it did say: "The hard problems ahead – in music, in podcasts, in books, in video, in live, and in things we haven't built yet – we're going to keep building the technology to solve them."

The band Massive Attack is the latest to boycott the firm, saying Spotify was an "economic burden" on artists, and that fans' hard-earned money was fuelling its "lethal, dystopian technologies".

The firm said it made $4.5b in total revenue in the final three months of 2025.

Shares in the streaming jumped around 15% in trading following the financial results.