Grizzly Bulls
Financial research concept

Audio Streaming Monthly Active Users

Audio Streaming Monthly Active Users measures the total count of ad-supported users and Premium subscribers who consumed content during the last 30 days under Spotify's operating definition.

By Lee BaileyPublished Sep 23, 2026
Research context

See what supports this page, how current it is, and where comparable or historical context is available.

Research date
Sep 23, 2026Use the dated article and cited sources for the definition, examples, and stated limitations.
Operating-model context
15 connected conceptsPart of the reviewed Audio Streaming Subscription Economics; issuer definitions remain distinct where disclosed.
Company examples
1 reviewed companyRelationships reflect supported examples, not a normalized cross-company KPI ranking.
  1. Activity is an account-based engagement measure
  2. Total audience does not reconcile by simply adding paid and free counts
  3. Use MAUs as the top of the monetization funnel
  4. Part of the Audio Streaming Subscription Economics
  5. See It in Company Research
  6. Continue Research

Audio Streaming Monthly Active Users, or MAUs, measure the scale of an audio platform's recently engaged audience under the issuer's operating definition.

Spotify reported 751 million MAUs at December 31, 2025, up 11% from the prior year.

Activity is an account-based engagement measure

Spotify counts users that consumed content during the relevant 30-day window. The company notes that one person can maintain multiple accounts, while one account can also be used by multiple people.

MAUs therefore measure active accounts under Spotify's methodology, not verified unique individuals.

Total audience does not reconcile by simply adding paid and free counts

Spotify also reported 290 million Premium Subscribers and 476 million Ad-Supported MAUs.

Those figures should not be mechanically added to reproduce total MAUs because Premium subscriber counting and active-user counting use different eligibility rules. Family and Duo sub-accounts can count as Premium subscribers, while MAU status depends on recent consumption.

Use MAUs as the top of the monetization funnel

MAU growth can support both paid conversion and advertising inventory, but it does not show how well the platform monetizes that audience.

Pair MAUs with Premium subscriber growth, Premium ARPU, and ad-supported revenue to separate audience expansion from monetization quality.

Primary source: Spotify 2025 Form 20-F.

Part of the Audio Streaming Subscription Economics

Connect audience scale, paid subscribers, ARPU, Premium and ad-supported revenue, and segment gross margins to understand audio-streaming growth, monetization, and content-cost economics.

Browse the full operating model in Company Analysis →
Where this concept fits
  • Audience scale and paid conversionCurrent relationship
    Monthly Active Users show the total engaged audience, while Premium Subscribers and Ad-Supported MAUs split that audience into paid and free-service participation under Spotify's issuer-defined methodology. Their growth rates show whether audience expansion is occurring through paid subscriptions, ad-supported usage, or both.
    Ad-Supported MAU GrowthAd-Supported MAUsMAU GrowthMonthly Active UsersCurrent conceptPremium Subscriber GrowthPremium Subscribers
  • Premium and ad-supported monetization
    Premium ARPU connects paid-user scale to subscription monetization, while Premium and Ad-Supported revenue and their growth rates show how the two services translate audience into revenue. Foreign exchange, pricing, plan mix, advertising CPMs, impressions sold, and sales-channel mix can cause revenue growth to diverge from user growth.
    Ad-Supported RevenueAd-Supported Revenue GrowthPremium ARPUPremium ARPU ChangePremium RevenuePremium Revenue Growth
  • Content-cost and gross-margin economics
    Premium and Ad-Supported gross margins show the economics of each service after royalties, content, podcast, audiobook, payment-processing, streaming-delivery, and related costs, while consolidated gross margin combines both services. Segment margin changes can differ materially because the underlying revenue and cost drivers are different.
    Ad-Supported Gross MarginConsolidated Gross MarginPremium Gross Margin

See It in Company Research

These companies are examples of how the concept is reported or discussed in public filings. Definitions can differ by issuer; these links open company research rather than a normalized metric comparison.

Continue Research

Continue from the concept into the Grizzly Bulls research surface that best matches the next question. These links are research continuations, not recommendations or required steps.

Compare stocks

Compare active audience scale

Compare issuer-defined active-account scale while preserving differences between MAUs, paid subscribers, and unique people.

Continue research

Explore more topics in the Financial Research Encyclopedia.