Spotify announced its Q4 2022 earnings today, revealing that it now has 205 million paid subscribers, which is a 14 per cent increase year-on-year. The audio streaming company now has 489 million monthly active users (MAUs), representing a 20 per cent increase year-on-year.

Despite the growth in MAUs, the company reported an operating loss of €231 million ($250 million) in Q4 2022. There is a 3 per cent year-on-year increase in average revenue per paid subscriber at €4.55 ($4.93), but it is slightly down compared to €4.63 ($5.01) last quarter. For 2022, the company had a net loss of €430 million ($466 million) on revenue of €11.7 billion ($12.7 billion).

In the earnings report, the company said the losses happened because of “higher personnel costs primarily due to headcount growth and higher advertising costs,” as well as “currency movements.” Last week, CEO Daniel Ek announced the company was reducing its employee base by 6 per cent. “In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth,” Ek wrote.

In the note shared with all Spotify employees, Ek wrote that the company is “fundamentally changing how we operate at the top,” with chief content officer Dawn Ostroff departing the company.

While there aren’t comparative figures available from competitors, Spotify remains the biggest music streaming service in the world. According to statistics from Music Ally, Apple Music had 60 million paid subscribers as of 2019, while Amazon Music is said to have had 50 million as of 2020.