Spotify Settling Into 'Mature, Loyal' User Base in US, Says CIRP Analyst

Spotify has “settled in” to the U.S. market, seeing “a decent but not spectacular user growth and retention pattern,” said Consumer Intelligence Research Partners analyst Josh Lowitz Tuesday. The streaming music service added one million subscribers in Q1, CIRP reported, with 38 percent of U.S. Spotify customers paying for Premium memberships. Lowitz cited competition from Amazon, Google, and Pandora, and especially Apple, now that it’s all in on paid streaming after consolidating iTunes into Apple Music. In the June quarter, 13 percent of Spotify ad-supported listeners trialed a Premium subscription, less than half the percentage in Q1, CIRP said. One-tenth of paid Premium subscribers ended their subscription, either reverting to ad-supported or ending their memberships, it said, vs. 14 percent in the March quarter. “The total user base stabilized, as growth from trials slowed, and retention of existing paid users improved,” said CIRP's Mike Levin. That retention “increased nicely, with a lower churn rate relative to recent trends,” suggesting that in the U.S. Spotify “may be settling in to a maturing, loyal user base.” Findings were based on surveys of 500 U.S. subjects who used Spotify April-June.