The Paris-headquartered streaming platform published its full-year results<\/a> on Wednesday (March 18), calling the milestone the start of “a cycle of sustainable profitability<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n The result is all the more striking given that Deezer’s total subscriber count fell significantly over the course of the year.<\/p>\n Deezer reports its subscriber base in two categories: ‘Direct’<\/strong> subscribers, who sign up and pay for the service themselves, and ‘Partnerships’<\/strong> subscribers, who access Deezer through third-party bundles \u2014 typically with telcos such as Orange<\/strong> and Bouygues<\/strong>, or through commercial tie-ups like its deal with German broadcaster RTL+<\/strong>.<\/p>\n By the end of H1 2025<\/a>, Deezer’s total paying subscribers had dropped to 9.2 million<\/strong> \u2014 down from 10 million a year earlier on a like-for-like basis. (Worth noting that Deezer originally reported its H1 2024 subscriber base at 10.5 million<\/strong>; this figure was subsequently restated downward to approximately 10 million after the company removed around 500,000 inactive family accounts from its count.)<\/p>\n The drop in overall subscribers was concentrated in Deezer’s partnerships segment, where subscribers contracted sharply as promotional cohorts from its Meli+<\/strong> arrangement with Brazilian marketplace Mercado Libre<\/strong> were converted to premium offers or churned off the platform entirely.<\/p>\n Partnerships revenue fell -12.1% YoY<\/strong> for the full year to \u20ac147.8 million<\/strong> as a result. Excluding the Mercado Libre effect, the company said partnership revenue was broadly stable year-over-year.<\/p>\n Deezer’s direct subscriber base, however, grew in the opposite direction \u2014 and it is this higher-value segment that underpinned the path to profitability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In France, the platform’s core market, direct subscribers rose +8.6% YoY<\/strong> to 3.8 million<\/strong>. The firm’s rest-of-world direct subscriber base also returned to growth<\/a> at +7.7% YoY<\/strong> for the full year, after several quarters of decline.<\/p>\n Alongside the shift in subscriber mix, aggressive cost-cutting proved equally critical. Deezer reduced operating expenses by \u20ac12 million<\/strong> year-over-year across marketing, staffing, and general administrative costs, which the company described as a result of “disciplined cost management.”<\/p>\n Adjusted EBITDA<\/strong> reached \u20ac9.7 million<\/strong> for the full year \u2014 up from negative \u20ac4 million in 2024 \u2014 marking the first time the Euronext<\/strong>-listed company has delivered a positive annual figure on this measure. Free cash flow came in at \u20ac10 million<\/strong>, and Deezer closed the year with a cash position of \u20ac65 million and net cash of \u20ac57.4 million<\/strong>, up from \u20ac47.3 million at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n Consolidated revenue was \u20ac534 million<\/strong>, a marginal -1.4% YoY<\/strong> decline at current exchange rates but broadly flat at constant currency \u2014 in line with the company’s guidance. Adjusted gross profit rose slightly to \u20ac135.5 million<\/strong>, yielding a 25.4%<\/strong> margin.<\/p>\n Deezer’s ‘other’ revenue segment \u2014 encompassing advertising, ancillary income, and white-label solutions \u2014 was a notable contributor to the improved margin picture, climbing +17.9% YoY<\/strong> to \u20ac34.2 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The company attributed this largely to the performance of Sonos Radio<\/strong> and the expansion of its white-labeling business for hardware and media partners.<\/p>\n The platform renewed 10<\/strong> major partnership agreements during the year, including with TIM<\/strong> and Sonos<\/strong>, and expanded into new verticals with clients such as Fitness Park<\/strong>, EDF<\/strong>, and Molotov TV<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Alexis Lanternier<\/strong>, CEO of Deezer, said the results validated the company’s strategic direction. “For the first time in our history, we delivered positive net income, alongside sustained positive free cash flow and double-digit adjusted EBITDA,” stated Lanternier. “We met or exceeded all of our financial commitments.”<\/p>\n Deezer’s positioning on AI-generated content<\/strong> has become a defining feature of its brand.<\/p>\n In January 2026, the company disclosed<\/a> that it was receiving approximately 60,000<\/strong> fully AI-generated tracks per day \u2014 around 39%<\/strong> of all daily deliveries to the platform.<\/p>\n Up to 85%<\/strong> of streams on that AI-generated content were detected as fraudulent, demonetized and removed from the royalty pool. Deezer has begun commercially licensing its proprietary detection technology to partners, including French collecting society Sacem<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The company said 85%<\/strong> of its partners are now on its artist-centric payment system, which it pioneered with Universal Music Group<\/strong> in 2023 before expanding it through deals with Warner Music Group<\/strong>, Merlin<\/strong>, and Sacem.<\/p>\n For 2026, Deezer said it expects revenue in line with FY25 while maintaining positive adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. Strategic priorities include accelerating direct subscriber growth, scaling a new B2B offering called ‘Deezer for Professionals,’<\/strong> and monetizing its AI detection capabilities through licensing. Q1 2026<\/strong> revenue is due April 23<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Company recently disclosed that it was receiving approximately 60,000 fully AI-generated tracks per day \u2014 around 39% of all daily deliveries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253400,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253393\/revisions\/253400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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