Spotify earnings: User growth, revenue growth, negative net income, unhappy investors

Under the theme “Building the World’s #1 Audio Network,” Spotify released its Q4 2020 results today. The main public-facing presentation is a splashy infographic illustrating user growth and recent acquisitions and features, with not a single financial metric in view.

Here are the basics:

• Premium subscription revenue: $1.9-billion
• Ad-supported revenue: $281-million
• Total revenue: $2.2-billion
• Gross profit: $575-million
• Gross margin: 26.5%
• Operating income (loss): ($69-million)
• Operating margin: (-3.2%)

The user growth? Spotify reports 155-million Premium subscribers, 199-million free-listening users of the ad-supported service, for a total of 345-million MAUs (monthly active users).

The geographic breakdown of MAUs is highest in Europe (35%), with 24% in North America, 22% in Latin America, and 19% everywhere else.

Investors didn’t love the report, sending SPOT stock tumbling downhill as of mid-day Wednesday:

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