Spotify's Audiobooks+ add-on is now available to some Premium subscribers
Audiobooks+ was first trialled in Ireland and Canada, and is launching initially for Premium Individual and Plan members in a number of countries in Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Once you've added it to your existing subscription, you'll get an additional 15 hours of listening to audiobooks included in Spotify's catalog , on top of what's already included in the base plan. For individuals, Spotify Premium on its own costs $12 per month.
For those on Premium Family ($20 per month) or Duo ($17 per month) plans, the plan manager has to purchase the add-on, and they're also able to buy a one-time top-up of 10 hours if they run out before their entitlement resets each month.
Spotify does already offer an Audiobooks Access plan to customers in the US only, which is separate from the Premium offering and also includes access to music and podcasts with ads.
Pricing for Audiobooks+ varies by market, but will cost £9 per month in the UK (around $12), where an individual Premium plan costs £12 (about $16). We'll find out what it costs here when it arrives in the US, which Spotify told Engadget will happen in the "coming weeks". If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
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Tom's Guide
an hour ago
- Tom's Guide
I test audio gear for a living — 5 secret Spotify features everyone needs to know
Spotify has been around for ages. It's one of the best music streaming apps, with a bunch of useful features for everyone. Playlists galore, intelligent music discovery algorithms and more make it a great app for those not as concerned with streaming quality. But did you know there are loads of features that you might not have known about? We've found some fun, intuitive and super useful Spotify features that you might not have known where hidden away in your music app of choice. We've even given them a fun score out of five. From the return of an old favorite to useful audio quality features, let's dive in. When I was kid, my mom would hand me her phone in waiting rooms so that I didn't cause a scene. I was a proto-iPad kid, as it were. The only thing on there was snake — and I played it for hours. Now you can do the same with your Spotify playlists thanks to this fun little hidden feature. It's easy to find — head to the three dots burger menu in a playlist, and select the 'eat this playlist' menu option. The game sees you consume the songs in the playlist as a snake, using your finger to guide the snake around the screen. Hours of fun — although we did note you've got to drag your finger pretty hard on the screen for it to work. Gaze into thy crystal ball, o seer, and tell me what thy eyes see in my musical future... S Club 7? Yeah, alright, go on then. Song Psychic is loads of fun. Go to the website from your mobile device, and follow the prompts about what you're going to have for lunch and the like. From there Song Psychic will recommend some songs that you can listen to, or even add to your playlists. Another fun feature that you might not know about! Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Playlists getting a bit boring? Spice up your life with smart shuffle the next time you go to listen to a playlist. Hit the shuffle button a couple of times and you'll spot the logo in it's place — you're good to go. From there smart shuffle will add in tracks that it thinks fit the vibe of your playlist to help you discover new music. You can add the tracks to the playlist if you like them, making that 60 hour party playlist even longer than it was before. It's fun, but it's no snake — this one is more useful than fun Your Taste Profile tells everyone that finds your Spotify profile the kinds of music that you listen to. But what if you listen to music that doesn't fit the image you're trying to portray? Can't have that dark, brooding persona you've had brewing for years be derailed by a few listens of the BackStreet Boys. Have no fear — you can hide artists from your tase profile. Find the three dots menu for a playlist, track, artist or album and select the "exclude from your taste profile option. Job done, and your carefully curate social image has been protected from the influence of 90s boy band pop. Spotify is never going to sound as good as the likes of Qobuz or Tidal, but there are ways to make it sound better at the cost of mobile data. To up the track quality, head to the settings menu and find the audio quality drop down. From there, select between the options. Very high will sound best but use the most data, while low will sound the worst but save your data. Then there are the EQ settings. In the same settings menu, find the 'playback' settings. from there you'll find options to crossfade songs, Automix them for seamless transition, and then the EQ itself. You can play with it to your hearts content no matter the best earbuds you've got in your ears, which is nice. You can use this feature on both desktop and mobile, their locations in the settings menu are the same in both. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
How to use market patterns to master your portfolio
Listen and subscribe to Stocks In Translation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite to trade smarter? Follow market this episode of Stocks in Translation, Stock Trader's Almanac editor in chief Jeffrey Hirsch joins host Jared Blikre and Senior Reporter Allie Canal to explore market cycles and seasonality in trading. Hirsch unpacks how patterns like the election cycles, monthly seasonality, and investor sentiment provide clues for market behavior, especially as we enter the typically weak months of August and a week, Stocks In Translation cuts through the market mayhem, noisy numbers and hyperbole to give you the information you need to make the right trade for your portfolio. You can find more episodes here, or watch on your favorite streaming service. This post was written by Lauren Pokedoff Welcome to Stocks and Translation. Yahoo Finance's video podcast that cuts through the market mayhem, the noisy numbers, and the hyperbole to give you the information you need to make the right trade for your portfolio. I'm Jared Blickery, your host, and back with me is Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal, who's in for the voice of the people. And our guest today is one of the OG experts on seasonality. So we're gonna beTalking a lot about market cycles today. These are the patterns that repeat over time. And that is our phrase of the day, market cycles. What goes around comes around. If you can read the market tea leaves, how to use repeating patterns to pad your portfolio. And this episode is brought to you by the number $3.96 trillion. That is the value of all crypto digital assets into the big leagues alongside stocks, bonds, commodities, and real estate. And without further delay, let's welcome back our guest, our next guest for the next 20 minutes, Jeff Hirsch. He is the editor of the Stock Traders Almanac, publisher of the Almanac Investor Newsletter, and the wealth wise podcast. You can catch his work at stocktraders Jeff has spent a lifetime turning seasonal quirks into trading edges. He computerized his dad's hand-drawn spreadsheets and coined catchphrases of his own, and it is great to have you back here. So Jeff, thank you. You bet. Um, a lot has gone on this year, but let's start off where we are in the year we're kind of closing out July here. What, what can we expect for theNext few months, if history repeats, that's a big if here. Well, it's always a big if, but it has repeated quite a bit over the years, at least rhymed. Um, as everyone knows, likely from the almanac, August, September, the worst two months of the year. We've had quite a run from April through July. Uh, we're looking at adding some more on here and my seasonal charts, especially for the post-election a little bit of weakness in August, September. I'm not looking for anything sinister. We had a pretty solid correction back there in in April. Um, things didn't get as bad as everyone feared. And, um, fourth quarter looks pretty strong. We're probably gonna end up close to 20% again. That's a, that's a big claim.20% because we had that each of the last two years and a lot of people said we were not goingto see that again. I didn't think we were going to get it. That was the sort of lower probability, best case scenario that we put out in our forecast in December of 24. We had sort of waffled back a little bit when things were looking sketchy, where we might get a kind of a flatter year, but, um,The charts are telling us otherwise. There's a lot of, a lot of bullishness out there. I'm just worried that we've got too much bullishness out there and it's starting to wane a little bit, right? And thatwas my question because what if we start to see the tariff impact trickle through into some of that hard data which we haven't seen to the extent that economists have warned, but if CPI comes in really high in October, November, what does that say about where we could endup the year? I think it starts to hit in 26. I'm expecting more of that to impact the market in 206 along with the midterm we haven't really seen some of that, that impact in, in the hard data yet. But one thing with inflation, you know, it raises stock prices too. Stocks are asset prices, you have all prices go up. So it's lifting stocks somewhat, and we haven't seen it really come through. I mean, we have some, um, inflation projection charts that we work, that we look at. Yeah, there's some, some monthly tweaks here and there, but for the most part, it's pretty close to the, the targets that the Fed has. I mean, the whole Fed interest rate thing is another discussion, but, um,If it starts to come in, you know, maybe, maybe we'll get that, uh, October bottom like we often get that we've had many years. So that might impact the September, you know, August, September period as well. That isa perfect segue into our phrase of the day, which is market cycles, and these are recurring waves of asset gains and pullbacks that move through four main stages growth, peak, decline, recovery, and, uh, we see this play out and I'm talking about market cycles here, which is related to seasonality. Seasonality, we think more in terms of the but tie it all together for us because your work is based in large part upon these market cycles. And how did you come about them? How did your father Yal Hirsch, who founded the stock traders Almanac, come about this? Well, I mean, he, he worked at a place called Indicator Digest back in the 60s and they compiled all the indicators and his whole uhYou know, epiphany was to, to, when he went out and started the Almanac, was to take all the market cycles, patterns, recurring trends and put them into the almanac in the calendar format so he could follow the market schedule along with his own. It was kind of his personal workbook. Um, one of the main cycles we look at is the 4 year cycle that I alluded to a few times here, the 4 year presidential election cycle, which, you know, you have different seasonal patterns within the different election know, having, uh, the only real major, you know, nation in the world have the election of its leader every 4 years on the same exact day creates a pattern. Um, you've got the 1st 2 years usually being a little difficult, though the post-election years have been better recently, but we have seen this midterm year be quite. That would be 2026. 2026 is which is what I'm concerned about.I've heard some other old school cycle people talking about 26 as well. Our old friend Larry Williams, who I had on my podcast originally, uh, my, my, you know, inaugural episode, uh, who, who's known me since I was little, but, uh, you know, he discovered them just by observing it. And, you know, one of the things with the, the counter effect that we see is that each month is we're coming into August. We just put out our August Outlook, uh, August Almanac, excuse me, on the newsletter, and the 1st 8 or 9 days of August tend to be weak, whereas generally the beginnings of months are a little bit stronger. But, you know, I saw one of your producers on the way in, she's going away, I'm going away, you see this sort ofvacation season impact the market. People go out to the Hamptons, as, as you know, the saying goes. So you gotta watch out for each month being a little bit different based upon the quarterly patterns of, of institutions that impact, you know, September and March and June and December, quite a few things going on out there. Youbrought up indicators, and I know we don't have a perfect indicator, and it's very evident when we look even at sentiment and survey data, even our indicator for recessions, two negative quarters of GDP that all hasn't always worked out that way. So what do you look at when you assess all the various indicators out there that may serve as that warning sign to you that things are starting to turn a little bit? Um, tops are a lot harder to call than bottoms. Bottoms are a reactive period. That sentiment indicator stuff that you were mentioning works very well at at bottoms. Bull bullish indications can stay bullish for a long time. We see that capitulation like we did in, um, in April was pretty clear. We look at new highs, new lows, advanced combine fundamentals, technicals with our seasonal work, monetary policy, and sentiment. I look at investors intelligence, um, bullish and bears present advisors, which, um, has been great again at bottoms at tops it's very hard to call tops. We use a MacD indicator for our seasonal work and we use a longer MacD, a longer period, the 1226 9 that everyone moving average convergence vergence. We're gonna show a little uh definition above somebody's shoulder here, but when we look for the, the bottom, the buy in like October, we use the 8179. It's a shorter, faster MaD because bottoms are an event, tops are a process. So, you know, there's a bit of an art to it, um, and you have to rely on different things as, as, you know, the market evolves, but you know, combination of seasonals, fundamentals, technicals really helps. Yeah, I like that you're calling it an art, um, and it requires you being adaptive as well. So what are some of the tools that you've developed in recent years?That you didn't have maybe earlier on or just things that you have observed to have changed over the last few years. Well, Imean, the, the monthly patterns have changed quite a bit. It used to be the last day of the month and the first four of the new month that were where all the market's gains were made. Now we see it spread out throughout the month. We see the mid-month sort of strength from the injection of capital from 401ks and, and, uh, IRAs and that sort of thing. Everyone just sort of the payroll deductions going right into the to the market, know, uh, seasonality has, has shifted a little bit. We've, we've added NASDAQ's best 8 months, which goes from November to June. We just had our cell signal, uh, a week or so ago for the NASDAQ best 8 months with our MacD you know, you, you've got to look at technology and um it seems to be impacting the market and it's, it's not quite as uh perfect as it used to be where we just had this run from November to April and the market went sort of sideways May to October. So things shift a little bit. Do you think we're in a healthy bull market right now? We've been talking a lot this week about meme stocks. It's been called skinny in other yeah, I'm getting, it's a little bit skinny though. I haven't, haven't seen the breadth. Yeah, the meme stock stuff has us concerned as I, uh, you know, we're seeing that wall of worry get smaller. You know, all of the stuff that we were concerned about with the tariffs and, um, the international trade deal and even, and even the, the geopolitical, you know, um, turmoil stuff has, has sort of, you know, dissipated somewhat. So what's, what, what will worries is the market still climbing? You were, you mentioned that you were talking about the sentiment getting a little bullish. So does that tie into what we're seeing in the meme stocks right now? Is that kind of part of it? Most definitely. I think it's, it's very much part of it, crypto also, but we're, you know, our charts, are seasonal work, especially here in the post last year shows that, you know, that, that, that summer peak tends to go towards the end of July, and we're coming in here we are, and here we are. We've got a bunch of trade deals that just came out, or at least the big one with Japan today that, that's great, you know, world, but you know, what, what else are we gonna? We got the big beautiful bill. We got a lot of stuff accomplished. It would be what's next? Yeah, it would be kind of perfect for the stocks to sail into that August 1st deadline that was supposed to be the big thing and then just kind of peter off and be a sell the news event or a meh news event, something like that. Well, it's also that, that seasonal period. a lot of the stuff is converging right together here. The end of all this good news, the seasonal week period, people are gonna start taking off. I mean,We were talking outside, you're ready to go, uh, get, get some. I know you're dressed for it, you know, uh, I'm going away, you know, it's, it's, it's gonna happen. And then what happens in September is, it's, you know, the, it's the 3rd quarter. You get people coming back to school, back to work. They start, you know, window dressing their portfolios, selling losers, trying to gear up their, their, their, their, you know, accounts, their, um, positions for the end of the year, that 4th quarter rally. So,We've seen a lot of this end of September into early October, um, volatility and, you know, churning of, of, uh, of, of, of portfolios and it's pretty much what the institutions are doing. And you were just talking about how the meme trade that's concerned you a little bit recently. How is this different from what we saw in 2020, 2021? Are you as concerned as you were then, or wereyou concerned then? Or were you just riding the GameStop to obliviate or highs? Now, I remember myson came into my office home office and said something was an AMC right there? Yeah, I wrote a contrary indicator right there, yeah, exactly. And I put it in the back of the almanac that shows, uh, you know, how do you, um, you got to keep track of, uh, what, what people tell you. It's, you know, if you don't profit from your investment mistakes, somebody else will. So there's a spreadsheet in the back so you can write down who told you about it, what the stock did, we were just talking about that today, my partner and I, and it's very similar to 21. The only difference is that was kind of like peaking around November. Everybody was wearing masks too. I mean, it was a different vibe on the street. Yeah, there was, what was it, the Omicron or Omega? What was that? There was that yeah, that came out was the one I caught in December, I think of 2021. Oh, you got, yeah, I got it in, in May, but all right, anyway, we're going up. Yeah, yeah, we gotta hold that thought right there because we are, we need to take a short break. Coming up, we're gonna be talking about the future of tech and crypto and a scrum meets birdie runway showdown. Stay episode is brought to you by the number $3.96 trillion. That is the value of, uh, the total value of all crypto assets as Bitcoin hovers near all-time highs, and Ethereum just broke through $4000. Yet again, uh, so Jeff, you're not all seasonality here. I know you have a lot of interest in, uh, big tech, AI, some new trends here, biotech, quantum computing. Let's talk about that for a few minutes. Sure, I mean, this is, this is all part of uh our longer term outlook that what we call the super boom, um, which is based upon, uh, you know,Inflation and the end of like peace time and also uh technology culturally, what I call a culturally enabling paradigm shifting technology. This is something that Yale discovered back in the 70s where we see these moves after these, these postwar periods of 500% or more. Um we came out with this in 2010, this forecast for Dow 38,820 when it was about 10, Dow10,000 was a big prediction at one time too, so it was, uh, Yale's prediction back in 1976 was now 3420 from what it was like, wow, 670 intraday low. So, um, but the technology aspect continues to build and it's, it's like the, the tech stack, which is, I guess, you know, the, the newer buzzwords. I mean, we're seeing Bitcoin, which I just, I just put a, a, a page back in the almanac for next year, the, the best investment books of the year. And one of the books is, uh, Scaramucci's little book of Bitcoin, which really talks about Bitcoin as the technology that it is sort of like the, uh, it's like money data. Uh, and it's a, it's a fun short read, but it's really about, um, you know, the, the technology and how it's a game changer and we're seeing AI and Bitcoin. Quantum computing hasn't even really been been failed yet. It was in one of my list of technologies in the update for the super boom. So,I would love to find out more about quantum computing. I saw a couple of videos about it, butit's still, it concerns me because if it does what it's supposed to do, there's gonna be a moment where all of, all of, um,All basically codes that we use for banking, for everything, for personalization, keep our personal data free or excuse me, keep our personal data secure, all of that disappears in one fell swoop just because they're so much more powerful than regular computers and they can crack all the codes instantaneously. That's the moment I'm waiting for. So ithasn't happened. I have to change my passwords again. It's gonna be more like you can't change your password to something that will work, um, unless you're employing some quantum computer scheme. Uh, obviously I'm than technology, but that's just my understanding. That's, that's interesting, you know, with, with AI, if, if, you know, one of the things I found there is that, you know, it's the whole garbage in garbage out discussion there. It's great. I use it. I'm starting to use it more. I really plan on doing a lot with it with with the almanacs seasonal stuff, but I've found a lot of errors there. Like, like I was asking it about the stagflation question, you know, just because somebody was had mentioned it's like, what, what's really going on there? And they threw out erroneous GDP data. Like, I know what GDP revised but not that. No, it wasn't, it was just old and I kept still says former President Trump, by the way, if you doesn't register. He's president again. While there's technology, you know, is great and it's, it's definitely driving this boom. Um, I think there's some other, you know, parts of it that are working, but it's still early. I think, um, about a year or so ago I was equating it to about the Windows 95 moment, uh, which was like 92 983 when I. Operating system that was, but it, it was, but it was, um, the beginning of that, thatperiod. I mean the beginning of the Windows like the gooey experience for PCs and that'swhen I took, um, you were saying how I converted all dad's spreadsheets. First I did Excel for DAS like in '92 or whatever that's hardcore, my friend. I'm not hardcore. I have, I have, I have somebody else who knows that now, but I think we're still in those early stages, like in the early mid 90s period for AI. How quickly can we see this super boom then is it and how long does it last? It can last a lot longer. It's not necessarily a time thing. Usually events end it, so it's, it's not, it's not necessarily, um, a certain time frame. It's until something changes like things that, that changed these, these booms like in '82, uh, we had, you know, Reagan come in and and change things around. Volcker stamped out the stamped out inflation had the microprocessor and that went, you know, up 1500, to 2000. So, you know, that could be 18 years. Let's say we started in what, 2013, where the, not the bottom of the, the second. That was when theS&P made new highs for the first time because you had that, that mountain top from the dot-com boom to the global financial crisis boom. You had that 2000 and then 2008 and then the 2013. That was when it broke through. And then it finally we got a clincher when we had that little bear market bottom, one of those short ones in, in February which were real. China was in the, uh, focus there. So it can go on for a while and we just upped our forecast to over 60,000 Dow just because it was based on the Dow because of, you know, instead of taking it from the March 9 low, we moved it to the, the 2013, um, low before we broke out. So it's still going and we're gonna, we might have a, uh, a garden variety cyclical bear market next year, which I think is probably more likely than not, or at least 50/50 at this point, maybe a little but that doesn't stop the whole secular bowl and the and the super boom, right? Yeah, I guess that was my question. What stops the super boom? What comes after? And could you just have a new iteration of the super boom depending on what we see? We'vehad several of them. I mean, after World War I, you know, we had the roaring 20s, I don't think, uh, was it Ed Giardini's been talking about the roaring 2020s and etc. We had one, after World War keep coming. I mean, have you read any of the, the 4th turning stuff? Oh my gosh, we were just talking about we've been in the midst of the 4th for two generations now. I think we talked about Gen X before. I think, I think it's, uh, you know, my, I think my kids or that that that generation that's gonna be part of the 4th turning, it's gonna that's supposed to happen. It'sdisruption. It's been happening for 25 years. By not according to the guys who wrotethe, but they started talking about it. I read of 1st 5000 or 25 years ago. So anyway, um, what, oh, so I don't think we touched on biotech yet. What are, what are you involved in? What do you like in biotech and where do you see thatgoing? I think AI is gonna help that. Um, it's been, you know, elusive for a little while. It's starting to pick up again. Uh, I think it took a bit of a, a hit when RFK, uh, Junior came into, uh, the White House, butUm, people are talking about, you know, clients living at 100 years old and how to plan for their wealth. Uh, there's biotech in there. Um, think about the wealth gap that just kind of gets out of control. If you don't have to worry about inheritance, it's potentially. I, I, it, it's, there's so many more people that need need so many more things that biotech is, is, um, I think it's been stalled a little bit. I think it's ready to to move again. It's a, it's a sector that I love, but, um, it hasn't done all that great the last severalyears. That is for sure. All right, we got to spend a little time here to get to today's runway battle, and we have two sports, 2 mindsets, and 2 catwalks. On stage left, catwalk left is the rugby grit and momentum smashing through market tackles to grab extra yards of alpha and on catwalk right is the golf swing, all about quiet concentration, plotting each stroke to avoid the sand traps of volatility. Jeff here is a former rugby hooker and knows both games very well. So tell us, Jeff, which philosophy wins the current market environment? It is it is it the full contact conviction or patient coursemanagement? I mean, I love them both. I think you got to use them both, kind of like my market at a, uh, glance disciplines where we use all the, all the, the disciplines out there. I mean, there's times to be to smash into it. Um, I think we've been doing that at the, uh, for the last few months. Right now with the seasonals coming in, there's probably a little, a little sand trap volatility, you know, waiting there for us. So a little I appreciate you following up those two sports. I don't do the rugby anymore though, but, uh, I still watch it. What do you think?The lead driver of that volatility, is it going to be more policy uncertainty? Is it going to be inflation tariffs, DC? I think more like anemia. Like things will be a little anemic. We're going to run out of good news and people are going to step away. They're going to take some profits. They're going toYou know, go to the beach, go to the golf courses, and, and I think it, I don't think it's, I think it's gonna be a lack of news. I think we're gonna run out of good news and it's just gonna be a little seasonal dip, nothing was born out of nothing, so who knows? Yeah, I don't, I don't think it's gonna be some real trigger. I think it's just gonna be kind of roll over and then I kind of like it's been nonstop over it's the beginning of the year, news, news, news. It just feels like we've been inundated with so many things. I'm sure as an investor it's a little confusing too, just wading through all the the puts and stops. Well, sometimes you just got to turn the news off. Yahoo. It's got to put the phone down. You got to take your time outs. You gotta, you know, go spend some time with the family and friends and keep the screens off for. All right, we're gonna leave it right screen on for a little bit though. We have officially wound things down and just a brief recap, um, I really enjoyed this conversation because we got to talk about not only the seasonal patterns, but how they change over time. And that's a very important thing. You gotta stay up to date. You gotta be able to use new tools and you have to be able to take in new information and adjust your old opinions because that's what it takes to survive this trading game. Nothing fixed in now that we have wound things down here at Stocks and Translation, be sure to check out all our other episodes of our video podcast on the Yahoo Finance site and mobile app. We're also on all your favorite podcast platforms. So be sure to like, leave a comment, and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Related Videos What could drive another bond market meltdown this year? Lipikhina: Market Optimistic About Potential US-EU Deal Deutsche Bank CFO on Second-Quarter Earnings Declining Policy Uncertainty Will Drive Markets Higher, Standard Chartered Says Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Business Insider
6 hours ago
- Business Insider
Spotify Stock (SPOT) Bulls Gear Up Ahead of Q2 Earnings Reveal
Momentum is firmly behind Spotify Technology (SPOT), the world's leading music streaming platform. The stock has surged nearly 115% over the past year, including a gain of over 50% in the first half of 2025 alone. It's a dramatic reversal from the lows of 2022, when questions around profitability and weak gross margins cast serious doubt on the company's long-term prospects. Market data shows that since September last year, Spotify has left the S&P 500 (SPY) in the rearview mirror. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Spotify's renewed focus on profitability has clearly resonated with investors, and its strong execution has led to a meaningful re-rating of the stock. With Q2 earnings set for release next week, expectations have come down slightly compared to the start of last quarter, in line with more cautious guidance. That lower bar could work in Spotify's favor—if it delivers even modest beats across key metrics, the current momentum could easily continue. Valuation-wise, the stock isn't cheap. But for a high-growth business with expanding margins and a clear path to improved earnings, I believe there's still meaningful upside. That's why I continue to rate Spotify as a Buy. How Spotify Reinvented Its Story Not so long ago, back in 2022, Spotify's stock had crashed about 75% from its 2021 highs. At the time, investors were losing patience with the company's persistent losses, despite massive revenue growth. Costs were ballooning due to big bets on podcasts, and gross margins were stagnant as expensive music licensing consumed a large portion of revenue. But over the last two years, there's been a massive re-rating in SPOT's stock. Spotify posted its first quarterly profit in 2023 and its first annual profit in 2024. Gross margins, for example, have climbed from around 25% at the end of 2023 to over 31% today. With a shift in narrative from pure growth to 'profit matters,' Spotify cut staff costs, trimmed back costly podcast shows that weren't paying off, and focused on higher-margin content and more selective investments. Additionally, gross margins received a boost as podcast and advertising monetization began to mature. The macro backdrop also helped, as optimism returned to markets in 2024, and more precise margin targets gave investors more confidence that Spotify could finally deliver on its long-promised goal of achieving 30–35% gross margins. All of this has made SPOT stand out compared to many of its still-unprofitable peers. That said, Spotify is set to report its Q2 earnings under a particularly low bar over the last three months, after analysts revised their EPS estimates down from $2.46 to $2.34 —although revenue expectations have actually risen, from $4.85 billion to $4.97 billion. This is mainly because Spotify's own guidance for Q2 calls for slower MAU growth of 11 million, compared to 13 million in the last quarter. At the same time, margins are expected to remain flat at 31.5%, and there could be up to $100 million in negative currency impacts. So on one hand, this looks like a more cautious move by the company—although Spotify's track record is mixed here, as it tends to be more aggressive when setting long-term margin and profit targets. In my view, the slowdown in MAU growth reflects the sheer scale of Spotify's existing user base—now at 689 million. At this size, acquiring new users becomes increasingly expensive, as the most accessible markets are already saturated. Growth from here means reaching harder-to-penetrate regions, which typically requires more aggressive and costly marketing. Rather than chasing user growth at all costs, Spotify's decision to accept a slower pace signals a strategic shift toward margin preservation. I see this as a smart move, especially as the company matures and the focus naturally shifts from pure expansion to sustainable profitability. Going forward, the real lever for growth isn't user count—it's revenue per user (ARPU). That's likely to be a central theme in the upcoming earnings report. If Spotify demonstrates a clear focus on boosting ARPU—through upsells, cross-sells like audiobooks and ads, price increases, or premium tier bundles—it should reinforce investor confidence and support the bullish case. A Reality Check on Spotify's Premium Multiple Perhaps the most significant challenge to this thesis is that S potify currently trades at an EV/Sales ratio of approximately 7.8x and an EV/EBITDA ratio of around 70x—that's more than 300% and 500% higher than the industry averages, respectively. These multiples are what the market would have expected for a high-growth stock, but this is for a business that's already showing signs of slower growth. But digging deeper, it's worth stress-testing how realistic (or not) these multiples are. Spotify has explicitly guided for a long-term consolidated gross margin target of 30–35%—for context, its current gross margin is about 31.5%. Consensus revenue estimates for Spotify in five years from now are about $32.9 billion—that's roughly 60% growth from 2025 projections. If we assume today's OpEx of $3.5 billion stays flat (just for simplicity), EBIT would land around $8 billion five years from now, assuming margins reach 35% in year five. Using the sector's average EV/EBIT multiple of 18x, or a premium 20x for Spotify, the implied valuation would come in around $160 billion—versus today's $142.6 billion market cap. That's only about 13% upside from here. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that the market is already pricing in moderate success on margin expansion and cost discipline—but not a significant upside beyond that. Hitting these targets consistently won't be easy for Spotify, but it's also not out of reach. Is Spotify a Buy, Hold, or Sell? The consensus for SPOT is moderately bullish. Of the 25 analysts covering the stock, 17 are bullish, seven are neutral and only one analyst is bearish, according to TipRanks data. SPOT's average stock price target is $762.25, implying almost 14% upside over the coming year. Spotify Rated as a Buy Ahead of Earnings Announcement Heading into earnings, I'd say the odds are firmly tilted in Spotify's favor. Despite the stock's impressive rally, there's still a reasonable margin of safety built into the long-term investment case—based on assumptions that are relatively grounded, which is rare for a growth name like this. In my view, the recent downward revisions to Q2 expectations actually reinforce the idea that Spotify is making the right strategic pivot toward margin expansion. That shift could be a key driver of long-term profitability. All things considered, I continue to view SPOT as an attractive Buy at current levels.
