Spotify is witnessing a change in how people are listening to the service as they stay home due to lockdown curbs to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Morning routines have changed significantly. Every day now looks like the weekend” the music streaming major said in a letter to its shareholders.
The company is seeing usage decline in cars, wearables, and web platforms, with a double-digit dip in some cases, while its usage through television and gaming consoles has seen almost a 50% increase over the same time period.
“Listening time around activities like cooking, doing chores, family time, and relaxing at home have each been up double digits over the past few weeks,” the company said in the shareholder letter.
This behaviour shift is more evident in podcasts than in music, although the service has seen an uptick in the consumption of podcasts related to wellness and meditation over the last few weeks, Spotify noted.
The pandemic has impacted some areas of its business, with a notable decline in daily active users and consumption in markets like Italy and Spain, although the listening has started to rebound over the last few weeks, and consumption has “meaningfully recovered” in many markets, the company said.
For the quarter ended March 31, Spotify grew its paid subscriber base by 31% year-on-year (YoY) to 130 million subscribers while the total user base also rose 31% YoY to 286 million.
Revenue from premium subscribers, which accounts for nearly 90% of Spotify’s overall revenue, rose to €1.7 billion from €1.39 billion in the corresponding quarter last year while the overall revenues touched €1.85 billion, registering a 22% growth year-on-year.
India performance
During the company’s earnings call on Wednesday, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said that they have “greatly” improved their music catalogue in the India market, which is having a positive impact on its users in the country.
In March, Spotify had renewed its global licensing partnership with Warner Music Group, which included the India market, thereby ending its long-drawn legal battle in the country. Spotify also signed a deal with Shemaroo Entertainment earlier this month to offer its subscribers access to over 25,000 songs across multiple genres and languages.
In India, Spotify competes with players like Gaana*, JioSaavn, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Bytedance’s Resso, and Hungama.
*Disclosure: Gaana was incubated by Times Internet that owns ETtech
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