Nov 12 (Reuters) - Audio-streaming giant Spotify ( SPOT )

forecast fourth-quarter profit above Wall Street

estimates on Tuesday, betting on cost cuts and strong subscriber

growth in the crucial holiday season.

The Swedish company has laid off employees, pulled back

podcasts and cut its marketing spend over the past year to boost

profitability. It has also raised prices of its plans in the

U.S. to capitalize on demand for its premium products.

Spotify ( SPOT ) expects operating income of 481 million euros

($509.76 million) in the fourth quarter, compared with the

LSEG-compiled average analysts' estimate of 445.7 million euros.

Its forecast for monthly active users (MAUs) of 665 million

was also above estimates of 661 million, according to Visible

Alpha. Spotify ( SPOT ) expects to add about 8 million premium

subscribers in the quarter, which would take the total to 260

million.

The company offers an ad-supported free service with limited

features and a subscription-based paid service that gives access

to all its premium functions.

It has been adding more premium features to attract users

and in September expanded a tool that creates playlists using

generative AI to four new markets, including the U.S.

That helped a 12% rise in premium subscribers to 252

million, compared with Visible Alpha estimates of 251 million.

MAUs rose 11% to 640 million and were also slightly above

expectations.

But overall revenue rose a less-than-expected 19% to 3.99

billion euros in the third quarter, missing estimates of 4.02

billion euros, driven by weakness in digital advertising market.

That and a strong dollar are expected to weigh on its

fourth-quarter revenue of 4.1 billion euros, which fell short of

estimates of 4.26 billion euros.

In the third quarter, gross profit jumped 40% to 1.24

billion euros, compared with estimates of 1.22 billion euros.

Gross profit margin increased to 31.1% from 29.2% in prior

quarter.

($1 = 0.9436 euros)

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun

Koyyur)