Spotify just hit 300M Premium subscribers

2 hours ago

Spotify now has 300 million Premium subscribers, a 9% increase year-over-year, far outpacing Apple Music's estimated 100 million paid users.
The company reported €4.78 billion ($5.5 billion) in quarterly revenue and a record gross margin of 33.4%, driven by subscriber growth outpacing content costs.
New initiatives include Reserved for early concert ticket access and AI-generated personal podcasts, but Spotify faced two major outages and criticism for AI content proliferation.

Apple reported June quarter records for total revenue ($109.4B) and EPS ($2.02), with revenue up 16% year-over-year.
iPhone revenue grew 22% to $54.3B; Mac revenue up 29% to $10.4B; Services up 12% to $30.7B; iPad down 6% to $6.2B.
Gross margin was 50.1%, including a 2% benefit from tariff refunds; operating cash flow hit a June quarter record of $34.4B.

Alphabet revenue grew 24% year-over-year, driven by AI investments across all business areas.
Search revenue grew 17% with AI Overviews and AI Mode driving user adoption and query growth.
YouTube Ads revenue grew 13%, with over 1.7 billion unique viewers during the 2026 World Cup.

Revenue was $90.0 billion, up 18% (17% in constant currency); operating income $40.6 billion, up 18%; net income $35.8 billion (GAAP) up 31%; diluted EPS $4.81 (GAAP) up 32%.
Non-GAAP net income was $35.3 billion, up 22%; non-GAAP diluted EPS $4.74, up 23%, excluding impacts from OpenAI investments.
Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $59.3 billion, up 27%; commercial remaining performance obligation increased 84% to $678 billion.

Streaming initially promised convenience, no ads, and a single service for all content.
Major studios launched their own platforms, fragmenting content across multiple services.
Subscription costs add up, and ad-supported plans have returned as companies seek more revenue.

Bending Spoons went public on Nasdaq, briefly surpassing $25 billion market cap, double its previous $11 billion private valuation.
The company acquires and holds digital brands like Meetup, Eventbrite, WeTransfer, focusing on financial improvement through tech, AI, price hikes, and layoffs.
It serves over 500 million monthly active users and 9 million monthly paying customers as of March 2026, with $1.31 billion revenue in 2025.

Apple reported June quarter records for total revenue ($109.4B) and EPS ($2.02), with revenue up 16% year-over-year.
iPhone revenue grew 22% to $54.3B; Mac revenue up 29% to $10.4B; Services up 12% to $30.7B; iPad down 6% to $6.2B.
Gross margin was 50.1%, including a 2% benefit from tariff refunds; operating cash flow hit a June quarter record of $34.4B.

Alphabet revenue grew 24% year-over-year, driven by AI investments across all business areas.
Search revenue grew 17% with AI Overviews and AI Mode driving user adoption and query growth.
YouTube Ads revenue grew 13%, with over 1.7 billion unique viewers during the 2026 World Cup.

Revenue was $90.0 billion, up 18% (17% in constant currency); operating income $40.6 billion, up 18%; net income $35.8 billion (GAAP) up 31%; diluted EPS $4.81 (GAAP) up 32%.
Non-GAAP net income was $35.3 billion, up 22%; non-GAAP diluted EPS $4.74, up 23%, excluding impacts from OpenAI investments.
Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $59.3 billion, up 27%; commercial remaining performance obligation increased 84% to $678 billion.

Streaming initially promised convenience, no ads, and a single service for all content.
Major studios launched their own platforms, fragmenting content across multiple services.
Subscription costs add up, and ad-supported plans have returned as companies seek more revenue.

Bending Spoons went public on Nasdaq, briefly surpassing $25 billion market cap, double its previous $11 billion private valuation.
The company acquires and holds digital brands like Meetup, Eventbrite, WeTransfer, focusing on financial improvement through tech, AI, price hikes, and layoffs.
It serves over 500 million monthly active users and 9 million monthly paying customers as of March 2026, with $1.31 billion revenue in 2025.

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