Spotify hits 130 million paid subscribers amid Covid-19

Spotify has reached 130 million paid subscribers, despite initial concerns over how the Covid-19 crisis could affect listening habits.

Despite the initial concerns of how the pandemic will affect on listening habits, Spotify has seen a quality rise hitting 130 million paid subscribers.

The music-streaming platform says it gained six million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020, reports BBC.

It said the figures fell into the higher end of what had been predicted before the coronavirus outbreak.

"Despite all the turbulence around the world, we hit pretty much all the metrics," chief executive Daniel Ek told Reuters.

The platform had begun to see a fall in user numbers in February among countries hit hardest by the virus, including Spain and Italy, he said.

But there had been a "meaningful recovery" over the past month.

Spotify said a double-digit rise in quarterly revenue had helped offset a decline in ad sales, which contributed less than 10% of its overall revenue.

But the tech analysts have quite a different opinion about this rising users of Spotify.

Media Research analyst Mark Mulligan said, "Checking an app once a month is not active usage. So daily active users and weekly active users are where scrutiny needs applying. Spotify says that the ratio of daily active users relative to monthly active users was 'strong' in the quarter."

The company said monthly active users had risen 31% in the quarter.

"However, strong does not mean up - and the fact it was reported as higher than 12 months ago but with no reference to last quarter suggests 'strong' may not be that useful an adjective here." he added.

Mulligan also noted 28% of consumers in the US and 25% in the UK had been using their usual commute listening time now for other activities.

"It is after all possible to have falling streams but a growing user base, ie more people signing up but using the service less," he added.