France-headquartered music streaming service Deezer has published its financial results for the six-month period ending June 30, 2025, reporting flat revenue performance as its total subscriber base continued to decline.
Consolidated revenues in H1 reached €267.1 million ($305 million), down 0.3% YoY, but up 1.3% at constant currency.
Deezer’s total subscriber base fell to 9.2 million at the end of H1, down from 9.4 million in Q1 and against 10 million in H1 2024.
The decline came as subscribers acquired through business-to-business partnerships shrank 21.1% to 3.9 million in H1.
As a result, Partnerships revenue also slumped 11.9% YoY to €76.5 million ($87m), which the company attributed to the “conversions of Mercado Libre promo cohorts to Premium offers.”
The double-digit drop in Partnerships revenue offset the 1.2% YoY increase in Deezer’s revenue from Direct subscribers to €173.6 million ($198) for H1, which the company attributed to “solid momentum in France with a QoQ acceleration of the subscriber base” and a slight 0.5% increase in ‘Rest of World’ subscribers achieved without new marketing investments.
Deezer’s Direct subscriber base climbed 5.5% YoY to 5.3 million, with Direct subscribers in France growing 8.2% YoY to 3.6 million and Rest of World subscribers inching up 0.5% to 1.8 million.
“We delivered our second consecutive half year of positive EBITDA – a major financial milestone that reflects the discipline of execution of our strategy and confirms our turnaround.”
Alexis Lanternier, Deezer
Despite the flat revenue performance and the overall drop in total subscribers, Deezer reported an adjusted EBITDA of €2.1 million ($2.4m), recovering from an adjusted EBITDA loss of €5.0 million ($5.7m) in H1 2024. This represents an improvement of €7.1 million ($8.1m) and marking the company’s second consecutive half-year of positive adjusted EBITDA.
Deezer said: “This good performance mainly reflected higher adjusted gross profit and strict management of SG&A and marketing expenses which decreased by 6.1 million YoY.”
Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, added: “We delivered our second consecutive half year of positive EBITDA – a major financial milestone that reflects the discipline of execution of our strategy and confirms our turnaround. Deezer is on track to meet its financial targets announced for the full year.”
Deezer’s H1 revenue performance, however, showed mixed results, with its home market of France driving growth while international markets declined. The company generated €160.2 million ($183m) in France, up 4.0% YoY, while its revenue outside France fell 6.2% YoY to €106.9 million ($122m).
Direct subscription ARPU (average revenue per user) stood at €5.50 ($6.29) per month, down 1.8% YoY, while Partnership ARPU improved 3.7% to €3.10 ($3.54) per month due to what Deezer called “a better mix” following the Mercado Libre subscriber conversions.
Meanwhile, the company’s ‘Other’ revenue segment, which includes advertising and ancillary revenue, surged 77% YoY to €17.0 million ($19.4m) in H1, driven by what the company described as “the good performance of the white labelling solutions for hardware / media partners.”
The company’s adjusted gross profit totaled €65.5 million ($74.8m) in H1, up 1.5% YoY, while adjusted gross profit margin improved to 24.5% from 24.1%.
Deezer reported a net loss of €7.6 million ($8.7m), improving from the €19.4 million ($22.2m) net loss in H1 2024. While the company’s free cash flow narrowed to €1.0 million ($1.1m) from €7.3 million ($8.3m) last year, Deezer said it expects positive free cash flow for the second year in a row.
During the first half, Deezer launched several strategic initiatives as part of what CEO Alexis Lanternier called its “new strategic plan.” These initiatives include the launch of Deezer Business, which has attracted brands like UGC, Converse, and Dunkin’, renewed partnerships with Orange and Bouygues in France, as well as Sonos in the US. The company also introduced what it claimed was “the world’s first AI tagging system for music streaming.”
The AI tagging system revealed that 18%, or more than 20,000, of all music uploaded daily to Deezer are 100% AI generated. Deezer filed two patent applications for the technology in December.
“We also continued to spearhead responsible innovation in the music industry, promoting fairness and transparency, as we launched the world’s first tagging system for 100% AI generated music in streaming.”
Alexis Lanternier, Deezer
Lanternier said: “We have successfully launched our new strategic plan, introducing a first wave of innovative features aimed at empowering our users, connecting them in more personal ways with their favorite music and artists. The success of this new strategy led to strong momentum in France, with steady subscriber growth.”
“We also continued to spearhead responsible innovation in the music industry, promoting fairness and transparency, as we launched the world’s first tagging system for 100% AI generated music in streaming.”
Music Business Worldwide
