Music streaming platform, Spotify added 11 million monthly active users in the third quarter of 2026, bringing its total audience to 788 million by the end of September.
The increase represented an 11 per cent rise compared with the same period last year, according to the company.
Its paying subscribers also grew by nine per cent year-on-year to 306 million, exceeding its forecast of 305 million.
“This was a quarter where we did what we said. We’ve built a strong business that keeps compounding,” co-chief executive Alex Norstrom said in a statement.
Spotify recorded revenue of €4.97bn ($5.6bn) during the quarter, representing a 16 per cent increase from the corresponding period in 2025.
Its operating income also rose by 15 per cent to €672m.
The company expects its monthly active users to increase by another 30 million before the end of the year, taking the total to 818 million.
It also projects that its paying subscriber base will reach 316 million.
Spotify has expanded its services beyond music streaming in recent years, investing significantly in podcasts before introducing audiobooks.
In early October, the company announced plans to extend its audiobook service to more than 180 markets, up from the previous 22.
Meanwhile, concerns over the growing volume of artificial intelligence-generated content on streaming platforms have prompted Spotify to introduce measures to identify and label such material.
Earlier this week, the company disclosed that it had removed “more than 50 million slop and spam tracks” from its recommendations this year, preventing the songs from being suggested to listeners.
In August, Spotify announced the introduction of an “AI Persona” badge to identify content creators generated by artificial intelligence rather than real people.
The company had also launched its “Verified by Spotify” badge in April to indicate that a profile had been reviewed and met its authenticity standards.
