Spotify Premium adds 1 million US subscribers in the second quarter of 2019 according to investment research company Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, LLC (CIRP). As at the end of the March 2019 quarter, CIRP estimates that in the US, 38% of Spotify users have a Spotify Premium subscription.
“Spotify has settled in, to a decent but not spectacular user growth and retention pattern,” said Josh Lowitz, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP. At 38% of all users, in our research, Premium users have remained within a narrow range as a percentage of all users. Competing services from Apple, Amazon, Google, and Pandora all continue to vie for attention, especially with Apple now emphasizing paid streaming, after discontinuing iTunes into the consolidated Apple Music service.”
Among US Spotify listeners in the June 2019 quarter:
- 13% of Ad-Supported Spotify listeners began a trial Premium subscription (‘trial rate’), down considerably from 27% in the March 2019 quarter.
- 74% of expiring trial Premium subscribers converted to a paid Premium subscription (“conversion rate”), down from 81% in the March 2019 quarter.
- 10% of paid Premium subscribers ended their paid Premium subscription, and either reverted to Ad-Supported Spotify or stopped using Spotify (‘churn rate’), up slightly from 14% in the March 2019 quarter.
“The total user base stabilized, as growth from trials slowed, and retention of existing paid users improved,” said Mike Levin, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP. “New trials declined considerably, and the conversion rate from trials to paid subscriptions decreased a bit, both relative to these rates in the March quarter. At the same time, retention increased nicely, with a lower churn rate relative to recent trends. This suggests that in the US, Spotify may be settling in to a maturing, loyal user base.”
CIRP bases its findings on surveys of US subjects who used Spotify during the period from April-June 2019. For further information on CIRP, which provides securities research to the investment community using advanced consumer market research strategies, methods, and techniques go here.
