The streaming platform gained eight million subscribers—it’d hoped for seven million to 10 million—this quarter, bringing it to a total of 108 million paid subscriptions and 232 million monthly active users. Its earnings for the quarter rose to US$1.86 billion, a 31 per cent increase from the same quarter in 2018, and its operating loss fell to US$3.34 million, a 96.66 per cent decrease. The miss in subscription growth came from a “shortfall in execution” related to a student discount, said CFO Barry McCarthy, who added that Spotify can recover from it. It stock was down 0.40 per cent in late afternoon trading. (TechCrunch, Variety)

Talking point: The earnings are continued positive signs for Spotify after news in February that it was profitable for the first time in Q4 2018. And, it’s still ahead of its main rival, Apple Music, by about 48 million subscribers. Its acquisitions in podcasting—including Gimlet Media and Anchor—have also been paying off; it reported a 50 per cent audience increase since its last quarter. Notably missing from the call: discussions of Apple and India, the former of which Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against in Europe, and the latter of which is its latest market, having launched in February—almost a year later than planned—following complications and legal challenges. However, that its stock still dropped shows investors’ focus on continued subscriber growth.