Spotify user growth 'surprisingly strong' heading into Q2: analyst
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Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) is slated to report second-quarter results on July 25 and investment firm Monness, Crespi, Hardt pointed out that the streaming music giant's user growth has been "surprisingly strong."
Analyst Brian White, who has a buy rating on Spotify (SPOT), said he expects the company to have 217M premium subscribers, up 16%, while the total monthly active users were 532M, up 23%. 
"Over the past couple of quarters, Spotify has meaningfully exceeded its MAU guidance," White wrote in an investor note. "Spotify has also delivered upside in Premium Subscribers, albeit to a lesser degree than MAU."
Concerning the quarterly results, White believes Spotify (SPOT) will generate revenue of â¬3.204B, up 12% year-over-year, with an estimated loss of â¬0.72 per share.
A consensus of analysts expect the company to lose â¬0.70 per share on â¬3.48B in revenue. 
White, who also pointed out that Spotify (SPOT) "is riding a favorable long-term trend" by expanding its audio offerings, moving further into the ad market and improving its cost structure. 
Spotify (SPOT) has been able to maintain a competitive position and keep its Premium plan at $9.99 per month, despite Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) raising their respective prices to $10.99 per month. As such, White said the company has room to raise prices to match its competitors if it chooses to.
Conversely, Google's (GOOG) (GOOGL) YouTube Music Premium is also $9.99 per month.
Last month, it was reported that Spotify (SPOT) is considering introducing a new higher-end subscription later this year.
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