Music streaming giant Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT) has delivered its second profitable quarter in a row by earning a record €454 million in opening profit in the three months ending 30 September.
It marks a considerable improvement from the €32 million earned in last year’s third quarter and a continuation of the highly profitable previous quarter.
Spotify has only delivered a handful of profitable quarters since the Swedish group went public in 2018 during a high-cost growth phase.
In a Tuesday shareholder call, founder and chief executive Daniel Ek said “we are on track for our first full year of profitability”.
Commenting in the third-quarter results, Ek stated: “We outperformed on both subs and MAU (monthly active users), revenues were in line and we had significant beats on gross margin and operating income.
“We also had another sequential - and all-time record quarter of free cash flow.”
Premium subscribers increased 12% year on year to 252 million, total revenue increased 19% to €4 billion and the operating margin was 11.4%.
Spotify’s share price reflected the record quarter, with the stock surging 7.5% to a new all-time high of US$451 in Wednesday’s pre-market trading session.