Music provider disappoints analysts with bad numbers in new customer business. In Tokyo, meanwhile, Sony reports problems with the PlayStation console.

The music streaming market leader Spotify has missed expectations with its forecast for the current quarter amid the controversy surrounding corona information on its podcast platform. The share initially fell by more than 17 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday, but the drop later flattened to around ten percent.

Spotify expects to have 418 million monthly active users by the end of the first quarter, of which 183 million are said to be paying subscribers. Analysts had expected more. The service referred to the strong development in the past quarter, with which some of the expected growth had occurred earlier.

In the negative headlines
Spotify was recently in negative headlines after musicians like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell had their songs removed from the streaming service in protest. They accuse Spotify of tolerating false information about the corona virus in podcasts and thus endangering human lives. They refer in particular to the popular talk podcast by Joe Rogan, which can only be heard on Spotify after an exclusive deal. According to media reports, the streaming service attracted Rogan with 100 million dollars (88.5 million euros).

After the criticism, Spotify wants to provide posts about Covid-19 with a reference that leads to scientifically based information from reliable sources. No other podcast platform goes that far, emphasized founder and boss Daniel Ek in a conference call with analysts.