Spotify Investor Day Highlights: UMG AI Deal, Audiobook Interest Surges
Categoria: Musica
This is the company's first Investor Day under the new leadership of co-CEOs Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström.
Por Billboard | 21/05/2026
On Thursday (May 21), Spotify hosted its Investor Day in New York City — its third public deep-dive into the company since it went public and the first under the new leadership of co-CEOs Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström . “The Spotify you see today is very different from the one you saw four years ago,” Norström said in his opening remarks. Related Spotify and UMG Announce Licensing Deal to Allow for AI Covers and Remixes Woman Accused of Attempting to Murder Rihanna to Face Mental Health Competency Test EDC Las Vegas Expands In 2027 With 12-Day 'Dusk Till Dawn' Concept Through presentations about the company’s new advertising stack, growth in its audiobooks division and the unveiling of a new AI licensing deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) and Reserved — a ticketing initiative that identifies an artist’s most passionate fans and holds a pair of concert tickets for them — the company attempted to persuade investors it can achieve its long-term goals of a 35-40% gross margin and 1 billion users. Below are the biggest highlights from the day’s presentations. Spotify thinks a slim percentage of super-dedicated users are willing to pay as much as $100 a month for subscriptions “There is no such thing as an average user,” Nörstrom said, describing the streamer’s users as freemium, premium and super-users. The company estimates that more than half of Spotify users will continue to use it for free in the coming years. But it also projects that roughly 25-30% of its total user base will have premium subscriptions and around 10-15% will be super-users — consumers who are willing to pay more than $12.99 a month. Within the super-user segment, the company said it sees signals that a small percentage — less than 5% — appear to be willing to pay as much as $100 a month. Audiobooks will generate $100 million in annual recurring revenue by July Söderstrom said internally Spotify used to speculate about what new Spotify premium add-on — podcasts, audiobooks, etc. — would appeal to super-users enough that they’d pay more. “We all thought that music [could be it], but it turns out that it was our newest vertical, audiobooks, that got there first,” Söderstrom said. Since launching audiobooks in 2023, it has observed a segment of audiobook streamers hit their monthly usage limits more frequently than most other segment users. This led Spotify to roll out the option to pay for additional audiobook streaming hours, a service called Audiobooks Plus, which has proven popular among those dedicated users, executives said. Spotify is now on track to generate $100 million in annual recurring revenue from Audiobooks Plus by July, the company said — up from roughly zero about two years ago. Overall, audiobooks are Spotify’s fastest growing segment, with roughly 20-30% annual growth in the United States, and listening hours increasing 60% in 2024 to 2025. Honk: Spotify’s engineers use AI a lot, and when they stop spending mon