We recently published a list of Why These 15 Communication Services Stocks Are up the Most So Far in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT) stands against other communication services stocks that are up the most so far in 2025.

The communication services sector has been one of Wall Street’s most dynamic performers so far this year. The sector has a lot of breadth and encompasses everything from traditional telecom giants to digital advertising platforms and streaming entertainment providers, so the sector hardly moves in tandem.

What makes this sector particularly intriguing is how different subsegments are thriving for entirely different reasons. Tech-oriented communication stocks have capitalized on AI, whereas telecom stalwarts have found strength through 5G network expansion, which is finally becoming the dominant communication standard this year.

Understanding these market leaders provides both defensive positioning opportunities and exposure to some of the most innovative companies.

Even during bear markets, there are pockets of the market that perform exceptionally well. For example, I identified 15 Energy Stocks that are Up the Most in 2025 in another article.

Methodology

For this article, I screened the best-performing communication services stocks year-to-date.

I will also mention the number of hedge fund investors in these stocks. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

A person wearing headphones listening to an audio streaming service.

Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 101

Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT) is the world’s largest audio streaming subscription service, offering music, podcasts, and audiobooks to over 675 million users in 184 markets.

The most important reason for the surge in 2025 was the announcement of a renewed multi-year partnership with Universal Music Group in early February, which sparked a 9.3% single-day gain. This deal reassured investors about Spotify’s content pipeline and revenue-sharing model, while also supporting innovation and artist success.

Other key drivers include the launch of new subscription tiers and the expansion into educational content, which diversified revenue streams and tapped into new user segments.

The consensus price target of $593.95 implies 1.9% downside.

SPOT stock is up 35.44% year-to-date.

Overall, SPOT ranks 13th on our list of communication services stocks that are up the most so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of SPOT, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SPOT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.