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FYI

Spotify Turns A Corner With First Ever Profit

Spotify finished 2018 with 96M paying subscribers around the world, up by 25M year-on-year.

That wasn’t the biggest news in Spotify’s freshly announced financials for Q4 2018, though.

Spotify Turns A Corner With First Ever Profit

By External Source

Spotify finished 2018 with 96M paying subscribers around the world, up by 25M year-on-year.


That wasn’t the biggest news in Spotify’s freshly announced financials for Q4 2018, though.

The company posted its first ever quarterly operating profit (€94m) in the final three months of last year, driven by lower operating costs (-17% YoY). The firm, which posted a €442m net profit in the quarter – thanks to €387m of finance-related income – said that “movements in our share price in Q4 had a [positive] sizeable impact on our reported results” but that “the business would have been profitable regardless”.

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​Justin Bieber, "First Place"
Courtesy Photo

Justin Bieber, "First Place"

Pop

Justin Bieber Is an Honourable Mention on Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2025

After a three year absence, the Canadian star returned to music, trading in his pop sensibilities for an indie-leaning R&B sonic palette on Swag — which earned him the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart.

As a pop star, keeping your finger on the pulse isn’t always easy. In 2025, a select group of artists kept their name in the cultural zeitgeist, but didn’t quite dominate the entire year.

Last week, Billboard revealed its list of Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 Honourable Mentions, and Justin Bieber is on the list.

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