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Spotify is a multinational audio streaming service provider headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in 2006, it offers access to music, podcasts, audiobooks and other audio content via a hybrid free-ad-supported and subscription-based business model, and has expanded its services to over 60 countries globally.
Key moments
2006Founded in Stockholm, Sweden by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon
2008Launched in European markets and expanded to the United States
2013Acquired music data analysis companies to improve personalized recommendation algorithms
April 2018Listed on the New York Stock Exchange through direct listing
March 2024The EU leveled antitrust allegations against Apple over its treatment of streaming services including Spotify
2024Achieved full-year profitability for the first time, shifting from scale-expansion to profit-focused growth
2025 Q1Reached 268 million paid subscribers and 678 million monthly active users, with a paid conversion rate of nearly 40%
Spotify Competitive Landscape
Key global competitors include Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal. Each targets distinct user segments: Apple Music integrates tightly with Apple's ecosystem; YouTube Music leverages YouTube's free video traffic for user acquisition; Tidal focuses on high-fidelity audio for premium users; Amazon Music is bundled with Amazon Prime subscriptions.
Market leadership: As of 2023, Spotify held approximately 31% of the global music streaming market share, ranking first globally with a leading paid user base.
Differentiation strategies: Spotify initially used its free ad-supported tier to rapidly grow user numbers, then invested heavily in personalized recommendation tools like Discover Weekly and Radar. It has since expanded into podcast hosting and production via acquisitions, building a unique content moat to transition from a music-only streamer to a comprehensive audio platform.
Industry challenges: The company faces growing competition from emerging platforms like TikTok Music, and requires consistent large investments to secure music and podcast content rights to maintain its library scale.
Spotify is one of the most recognizable global brands in the audio streaming industry, built on a disruptive hybrid business model that redefined how consumers access music and audio content. Since its launch, the brand has prioritized user experience through data-driven personalization, which has helped it cultivate a large, engaged global user base. Its focus on expanding content beyond music into podcasts, audiobooks, and exclusive original content has further strengthened its brand relevance across different listener demographics. The brand maintains a strong competitive position by balancing accessibility (via ad-supported free tiers) with premium subscription features, attracting both price-sensitive users and high-value paying subscribers. It has consistently invested in technological innovation, particularly in AI-powered recommendation engines that improve content discovery, which contributes to ongoing user retention. While the brand faces intense competition from other tech giants in the streaming space, its first-mover advantage in many markets and scale have helped it sustain strong brand equity.
Brand leadership
Score: 82/100
Spotify holds the leading global market share in audio streaming, outpacing most competitors in total active users. Its brand is synonymous with music streaming for many consumers globally, thanks to early market entry and consistent marketing investment. The leadership team has successfully pivoted the brand to expand into high-growth areas like podcasts, solidifying its industry leadership position.
User-brand interaction
Score: 85/100
Spotify fosters high levels of user interaction through features like personalized playlists (e.g., Discover Weekly, Wrapped), social sharing, and user-generated content. Its annual Wrapped campaign drives massive social media engagement every year, with millions of users sharing their listening habits, creating organic word-of-mouth for the brand. The platform's interactive features keep users returning daily, leading to high average engagement per user.
Brand momentum
Score: 78/100
Spotify continues to grow its user base and premium subscriber count steadily, even in mature markets. It is expanding into new content verticals like audiobooks and live audio, which drives incremental brand growth. While growth rates have moderated as the market matures, the brand maintains positive momentum through innovation and strategic partnerships with record labels and content creators.
Brand stability
Score: 80/100
Spotify has established consistent revenue streams from both subscriptions and advertising, reducing business volatility. It has a strong balance sheet that supports long-term investment in content and technology, and the brand has maintained a steady reputation among consumers and industry partners over time. Despite periodic challenges related to royalty negotiations with rights holders, the brand has managed risks effectively to maintain operational and brand stability.
Brand age
Score: 65/100
Founded in 2006 and launched publicly in 2008, Spotify is a relatively young brand compared to legacy music and media companies. Its youth allows it to adapt quickly to changing consumer preferences, but it has not yet built the multi-generational brand recognition of older entertainment brands. Over nearly two decades of operation, it has built enough brand history to establish solid market presence.
Industry profile
Score: 88/100
Spotify is the face of the modern audio streaming industry, credited with transforming the music business from physical and download models to streaming. It has shaped industry standards for content distribution, royalty structures, and user experience, influencing how all competitors operate in the space. The brand is widely cited in media and industry discussions as the benchmark for streaming audio, giving it extremely high industry profile.
Global brand presence
Score: 75/100
Spotify operates in over 60 countries across North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, building a truly global user base. It has adapted its content and marketing strategies to fit regional markets, partnering with local artists and content creators to resonate with local audiences. However, it has not yet entered some large markets like China, limiting its full global reach compared to some competitors.
AI can support preliminary reasoning around Spotify's brand value, all related figures used in analytical assessments are illustrative only and not independently audited. For a fully audited, formal calculation of Spotify's official brand value, please contact World Brand Lab directly.
Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media service provider founded in April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.[4] As of December 2025, it was one of the largest providers of music streaming services, with over 751 million monthly active users comprising 290 million paying subscribers.[5] Spotify is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.
Spotify offers DRM-protected audio content, including over 100 million songs and over 7 million podcast titles, from record labels and media companies.[5] Operating as a freemium service, the basic features are free with advertisements and limited control, while additional features, such as offline listening and commercial-free listening, are offered via paid subscriptions.Users can search for music based on artist, album, or genre, and can create, edit, and share playlists.It offers some social media features such as messaging, creating profiles, following friends, shared playlists, and creating listening parties called "Jams".
As of December 2022, Spotify is available in most of Europe, as well as Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania, with availability in a total of 184 markets.[5] Its users and subscribers are based largely in the US and Europe, jointly accounting for around 53% of users and 67% of revenue.[6] It has no presence in mainland China, where the market is dominated by QQ Music.[7] The service is available on most devices, including Windows, macOS, and Linux computers, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Smart Home devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Nest lines of products, and digital media players like Roku.[8] As of December 2023, Spotify was the 47th most-visited website in the world with 24.78% of its traffic coming from the United States followed by Brazil with 6.51% according to data provided by Semrush.[9][10] As of 2022, Spotify is the current sponsor of Spanish football club FC Barcelona, with music artists like Drake, Travis Scott, and Ed Sheeran collaborating with the club by changing their shirts into their artist logo, sometimes used for album promotions.
Unlike physical or download sales, which pay artists a fixed price per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on the number of artist streams as a proportion of total songs streamed.It distributes approximately 70% of its total revenue to rights holders (often record labels), who then pay artists based on individual agreements.[11] While certain musicians laud the service for offering a lawful option to combat piracy and for remunerating artists each time their music is played, others have voiced objections to Spotify's royalty structure and its effect on record sales.[12]
History
Spotify was founded in 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden,[13] by Daniel Ek, former chief technology officer of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of Tradedoubler.[14][15] Ek first had the idea for Spotify around 2002 when peer-to-peer music service Napster shut down and another illegal site Kazaa became popular.Ek said he "realized that you can never legislate away from piracy. Laws can definitely help, but it doesn't take away the problem. The only way to solve the problem was to create a service that was better than piracy and at the same time compensates the music industry – that gave us Spotify." According to Ek, the company's title was initially misheard from a name shouted by Lorentzon. Later they conceived a portmanteau of "spot" and "identify".[16] Ek's initial pitch to Lorentzon was not initially related to music, but rather a way for streaming content such as video, digital films, images or music to drive advertising revenue.[17]
Early international launches
In February 2009, Spotify opened public registration for the free service tier in the United Kingdom.[14] Registrations surged following the release of the mobile service, leading Spotify to halt registration for the free service in September, returning the UK to an invitation-only policy.[18]
Spotify launched in the United States in July 2011, and offered a six-month, ad-supported trial period, during which new users could listen to an unlimited amount of music for free. In January 2012, the free trial periods began to expire, limiting users to ten hours of streaming each month and five plays per song.[19] Using PC streaming, a similar structure to the one used today allowed the listener to play songs freely, but with ads every 4–7 songs depending on listening duration.Later that same year, in March, Spotify removed all limits on the free service tier indefinitely, including mobile devices.[20]
In April 2016, Ek and Lorentzon wrote an open letter to Swedish politicians, demanding action in three areas that they claimed hindered the company's ability to recruit top talent as Spotify grew, including access to flexible housing, better education in the programming and development fields, and stock options.
Corporate affairs
Spotify reported its first profitable year in fiscal 2024.[158] The key trends for Spotify Technology are (as of the financial year ending 31 December):[159]
Unionization
Spotify recognizes trade unions at its US podcasting subsidiaries The Ringer and Spotify Studios since 2019.In Germany, a works council was established in 2023.Swedish trade unions have unsuccessfully attempted to bargain collectively with Spotify since 2023.
Germany
Spotify GmbH employees in Berlin established an electoral board in February 2023,[162] which prepared the election for the works council in April.[163]
Sweden
Spotify AB does not recognize any trade unions or have any collective agreements in Sweden.Spotify ended joint-negotiations with the three trade unions Unionen, Akavia, and Engineers of Sweden (both affiliates of SACO) in August 2023. The three unions petitioned Spotify to negotiate back in May. 90% of Swedish workers are covered by collective agreements. In tech companies bargaining coverage is less common. Swedish labor disputes are also happening at Tesla and Klarna as of 2024.[164][165]
In November 2022, Henry Catalini Smith, a Spotify engineer in Malmö, set up the channel #kollektivavtal in the internal company Slack, which means "collective agreement" in Swedish. The channel grew to 2,000 participants. 700 employees have since joined Unionen, with another 100 each joining Engineers of Sweden and Akavia.[166] Catalini Smith no longer works at Spotify.[167]
United States
Writers Guild of America, East represents two union affiliates at Spotify Studios and The Ringer.[168]
The United Musicians and Allied Workers campaigns for a fairer redistribution and compensation system for musicians.[169] The United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) was established in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.One year later, in 31 cities worldwide, 27,500 musicians joined UMAW's campaign #JusticeAtSpotify to demand a compensation of one cent per audio stream.Moreover, they are asking for a fairer redistribution system, as smaller artists are disproportionately disadvantaged on Spotify.[170][169]
One month after Spotify acquired Gimlet Media in February 2019, 75% of staff at Gimlet Media went public, signing
Business model
Spotify operates under a freemium business model (basic services are free, while additional features are offered via paid subscriptions). Spotify generates revenue by selling premium streaming subscriptions to users and advertising placements to third parties. Some of the premium options users may choose from include individual, duo, family, and student.[181]
In December 2013, the company launched a new website, "Spotify for Artists", explaining its business model and revenue data. Spotify gets its content from major record labels as well as independent artists and pays copyright holders royalties for streaming music. The company pays about 70% of its total revenue to rights holders. Of that amount, about 58.5% of its total revenue goes to the owners of sound recording copyrights, and the other 12% goes to the owners of musical compositions.In the United States, this is split between 6% mechanical royalties (paid via the Mechanical Licensing Collective) and 6% performance royalties (paid via performing rights organizations or PROs).[182][183]
Spotify for Artists states that the company does not have a fixed per-play rate; instead, it considers factors such as the user's home country and the individual artist's royalty rate. Rights holders received an average per-play payout between $.000029 and $.0084.[184]
Today, royalties on all streaming services, including Spotify are paid on a per user basis not per stream as this allows the artists who users listen to the most to receive the largest percentage of the payouts. In 2013, Spotify revealed that it paid artists an average of $0.007 per stream. Music Week editor Tim Ingham commented that while the figure may "initially seem alarming", he noted: "Unlike buying a CD or download, streaming is not a one-off payment. Hundreds of millions of streams of tracks are happening every day, which quickly multiplies the potential revenues on offer—and is a constant long-term source of income for artists."[185] According to Ben Sisario of The New York Times, approximately 13,000 out of seven million artists (0.19%) on Spotify generated $50,000 or more in payments in 2020.[186]
In November 2023, Spotify announced a new royalty model taking effect in 2024, aiming to reduce the amount of "fraudulent" royalties collected from "functional" non-music tracks with short lengths (such as environmental sounds and white noise). Under the model, all royalties go to songs with at least 1,001 listens. Meaning that tracks must reach at least 1,000 listens in 12 months as well as a minimum number of unique listeners to become eligible for sound recording royalties, "functional" tracks will require a longer amount of play time to count as a listen, and distributors will face reprimands if their content is responsible for generating "fraudulent" royalties. This eligibility rule only applies to royalties for sound recordings, not musical compositions.[187] The changes faced a mixed reaction from the music industry, who believed that it would be detrimental to emerging musicians, but would make a larger share of total royalty payments available to musicians.[188][189][190]
Accounts and subscriptions
As of April 2026, the two Spotify subscription tiers are:
None of these subscriptions limit listening time.
In March 2014, Spotify introduced a discounted Premium subscription tier for students in which students in the United States enrolled in a university pay half-price for a Premium subscription.[192] In April 2017, the discount was expanded to 33 more countries.[193][194]
Spotify introduced a Family subscription in October 2014, which allows up to 5 family members to have a premium subscription.[195][196] In May 2016, the limit was changed to 6 family members, and the price was reduced.[197]
Platforms
Spotify has client software currently available for Windows, macOS, Wear OS, Android, iOS, watchOS, iPadOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S game consoles. There is an official, although unsupported Linux version. Spotify also offers a proprietary protocol known as "Spotify Connect", which lets users listen to music through a wide range of entertainment systems, including speakers, receivers, TVs, cars, and smartwatches. Spotify also has a web player (open.spotify.com). Offline Music listening is possible on watchOS[253] and more recently added to Google's WearOS[254] for those with premium subscriptions. Unlike the apps, the web player does not have the ability to download music for offline listening. In June 2017, Spotify became available as an app through Windows Store.[255][256]
Features
In Spotify's apps, music can be browsed or searched for via various parameters, such as artist, album, genre, playlist, or record label. Users can create, edit and share playlists, share tracks on social media, and make playlists with other users. Spotify provides access to over 100 million songs, 7 million podcasts, and 4 billion playlists. In June 2012, Soundrop became the first Spotify app to attract major funding, receiving $3 million from Spotify investor Northzone.[257][258][5]
In November 2011, Spotify introduced a Spotify Apps service that made it possible for third-party developers to design applications that could be hosted within the Spotify computer software. The applications provided features such as synchronised lyrics, music reviews, and song recommendations.[259][260][261]
Geographic availability
The company is incorporated in Luxembourg as Spotify Technology S.A.,[346] and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices in 16 countries around the world.[347][348][349]
As of December 2022, Spotify is available in 184 markets across Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.[5] Despite the extensive global coverage, the service remains unavailable in several countries and territories, including Afghanistan, British Indian Ocean Territory, Central African Republic, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Yemen.While Spotify's core music streaming service is accessible in all of its active markets, podcasting services are not available in Bangladesh, Belarus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Moldova, Pakistan, the Republic of the Congo, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Uganda, and Venezuela.[350]
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it temporarily closed its office in Russia[351] and indefinitely suspended all of its services in the country.[352] In 2023, it announced that it would leave Uruguay due to a copyright law.[353] However, it reversed its decision a few weeks later.[354]
Accolades
In September 2010, the World Economic Forum (WEF) selected Spotify as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.[396][397]
Reception
Spotify has attracted significant criticism since its 2008 launch.[398] The primary point of criticism centers around what artists, music creators, and the media have described as "unsustainable" compensation.[399] Unlike physical sales or legal downloads (both of which were the main medium of listening to music at the time), which pay artists a fixed amount per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on its "market share": the number of streams for their songs as a proportion of total songs streamed on the service.Spotify distributes approximately 70% of its total revenue to rights-holders, who will then pay artists based on their individual agreements.[184] Worldwide, 30,000 musicians have joined the organization UnionOfMusicians (UMAW).[400] UMAW organized protests in 31 cities in March 2021 and its campaign #JusticeAtSpotify is demanding more transparency and a compensation of one cent per stream.[400]
Spotify has been criticised by artists and producers including Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke, who have argued that Spotify does not fairly compensate musicians, and both withdrew their music from the service.[401][402] Their catalogues returned to the service in 2017.[403][404] While the streaming music industry in general faces the same critique about inadequate payments,[405] Spotify, being the leading service,[406] faces particular scrutiny due to its free service tier, allowing users to listen to music for free, though with advertisements between tracks.The free service tier has led to a variety of major album releases being delayed or withdrawn from the service.[407][408][409] In response to the allegations about unfair compensation, Spotify claims that it is benefitting the industry by migrating users away from unauthorized copying and less monetized platforms to its free service tier, and then downgrades that service until they upgrade to paid accounts.[184] A study has shown that record labels keep a high amount of the money earned from Spotify,[410][411] and the CEO of Merlin Network, a representative body for over 10,000 independent labels, has also observed significant yearly growth rates in earnings from Spotify, while clarifying that Spotify pays labels, not artists.[412] In 2017, as part of its efforts to renegotiate license deals for an interest in
In 2016, Spotify was criticized for allegedly making certain artists' music harder to find than others, as these artists would release their music to the rival streaming service Apple Music before releasing it to Spotify.[413]
In May 2018, Spotify attracted criticism for its "Hate Content & Hateful Conduct policy" that removed the music of R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from its editorial and algorithmic playlists because "When we look at promotion, we look at issues around hateful conduct, where you have an artist or another creator who has done something off-platform that is so particularly out of line with our values, egregious, in a way that it becomes something that we don't want to associate ourselves with."R. Kelly has faced accusations of sexual abuse, while XXXTentacion was on trial for domestic abuse in a case that did not reach a judgement before his death that June.[414] This policy was revoked in June because the company deemed the original wording to be too "vague"; it stated that "Across all genres, our role is not to regulate artists. Therefore, we are moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct".[415] However, artists such as Gary Glitter and Lostprophets are still hidden from Spotify's radio stations.[416]
According to some computer science and music experts, various music communities are often ignored or overlooked by music streaming services such as Spotify.[417][418][419] The most commonly perceived error is said to be caused by a lack of diverse scope within curation staff, including overlooking mainstay artists in large genres, potentially causing a categorical homogenization of musical styles; even impacting mainline artists like within hip hop with A Tribe Called Quest.[418]
In March 2021, David Dayen argued in The American Prospect that musicians were in peril due to monopolies in streaming services like Spotify.[420] Daniel Ek, co-founder and CEO of Spotify, discussed "what he called an artist-friendly streaming solution".He explained, "An extension of the internet radio craze of the early 2000s, Spotify would license content from record labels, and then support artists as people listened to their music."[420]
In January 2022, 270 scientists, physicians, professors, doctors, and healthcare workers wrote an open letter to Spotify expressing concern over "false and societally harmful assertions" on Joe Rogan's podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, and asked Spotify to "establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform".The 270 signatories objected to Rogan broadcasting COVID-19 misinformation, citing "a highly controversial" episode featuring guest Robert Malone (#1757).[421][422] On 26 January, Neil Young removed his music from Spotify after it refused to remove the podcast.[423] Other artists and podcasters, such as Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, Brené Brown, and Crosby, Stills, & Nash, also announced a boycott of Spotify.[424][425][426]
In 2024, Spotify Wrapped, which has become a key marketing strategy for the company, was criticised for appearing to rely on AI-generated content and producing uninteresting insights.[429]
In July 2025, several artists joined a boycott of Spotify because Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek raised another $600 million in support of German defense company Helsing through his investment fund.Helsing is an AI defense software company that also engages in military strike drone manufacturing.[430]
Fake artists
In 2021, a conspiracy theory began to take hold that Spotify was filling its playlists in some genres (including jazz, chill and "peaceful piano") with stock music attributed to a handful of little-known musicians, mostly Swedish, in an effort to meet demand for background music. In 2022, an investigation by the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter found that around twenty songwriters were behind the work of more than five hundred "artists", and that thousands of their tracks were on Spotify and had been streamed millions of times, benefitting those artists versus other artists who might otherwise have supplied the background or ambient music.In the 2025 book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, journalist Liz Pelly speculated that Spotify allowed these artists to put their music on Spotify. In doing so, if users chose to listen to one set of these artists' music, it effectively reduced the number of plays for other musicians. Pelly advocated for a move away from the current royalty model that says the artists who people listen to the most should make the most money toward a more generalized approach where the decision for who gets paid rests with industry or government bodies, not audiences.[431][432]
Privacy concerns
Spotify does not sell user data but did begin selling broader trend data, often coined "streaming intelligence" to marketing firms in 2016, allowing for the data to be available directly to clients.
163.Tech Workers Coalition. This is not exactly a @SpotifyDE album release...🥳 Berlin @Spotify employees formed a Works Council today! 🎶 Three months of campaigning with @verdi_tech 💪 retrieved 24 June 2024^
Ek and Lorentzon wrote that to continue competing in a global economy, politicians needed to respond with new policies, or thousands of Spotify jobs would be moved from Sweden to the United States.[21]
In February 2017, Spotify announced the expansion of its United States operations in Lower Manhattan, New York City, at 4 World Trade Center, adding approximately 1,000 new jobs and retaining 832 existing positions.[22] The company's US headquarters are in New York City's Flatiron District.[23]
On 14 November 2018, the company announced 13 new markets in the MENA region, including the creation of a new Arabic hub and several playlists.[24]
Other developments
Streaming records
In October 2015, "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran became the first song to pass 500 million streams.[25] A month later, Spotify announced that "Lean On" by Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring MØ was its most-streamed song of all time with over 525 million streams worldwide.[26] In April 2016, Rihanna overtook Justin Bieber to become the biggest artist on Spotify, with 31.3 million monthly active listeners.[27] In May 2016, Rihanna was overtaken by Drake with 31.85 million monthly listeners.[28] In December 2016, Drake's just-under 36 million monthly listeners were overtaken by the Weeknd's 36.068 million.[29] Later that same month, Drake's song "One Dance" became the first song to hit one billion streams on Spotify.[30][31] Upon its release in August 2017, the single "Look What You Made Me Do" by Taylor Swift earned over eight million streams within 24 hours, breaking the record for the most single-day streams for a track.[32] On 19 June 2018, XXXTentacion's hit single "Sad!" broke Swift's single-day streaming record, amassing 10.4 million streams the day after he was fatally shot in Florida.[33]
User growth
In March 2011, Spotify announced a customer base of 1 million paying subscribers across Europe,[34] and by September 2011, the number of paying subscribers had doubled to two million.[35] In August 2012, Time reported 15 million active users, four million being paying Spotify subscribers.[36] User growth continued, reaching 20 million total active users, including five million paying customers globally and one million paying customers in the United States, in December 2012.[37] By March 2013, the service had 24 million active users, six million being paying subscribers,[38] which grew to 40 million users (including ten million paying) in May 2014,[39] 60 million users (including 15 million paying) in December 2014, 75 million users (20 million paying) in June 2015, 30 million paying subscribers in March 2016,[40]
Premium-exclusive albums
The Financial Times reported in March 2017 that, as part of its efforts to renegotiate new licensing deals with music labels, Spotify and major record labels had agreed that Spotify would restrict some newly released albums to its Premium tier, with Spotify receiving a reduction in royalty fees to do so. Select albums would be available only on the Premium tier for a period of time, before general release. The deal "may be months away from being finalized, but Spotify is said to have cleared this particular clause with major record labels".[49][50][51] New reports in April confirmed that Spotify and Universal Music Group had reached an agreement to allow artists part of Universal to limit their new album releases to the Premium service tier for a maximum of two weeks.Ek commented that "We know that not every album by every artist should be released the same way, and we've worked hard with UMG to develop a new, flexible release policy. Starting today, Universal artists can choose to release new albums on premium only for two weeks, offering subscribers an earlier chance to explore the complete creative work, while the singles are available across Spotify for all our listeners to enjoy".[52][53]
Direct public offering
Spotify went public on the stock market in April 2018 using a direct public offering rather than an initial public offering.This approach is not intended to raise fresh capital, but to let investors get their returns.[57][58][59]Morgan Stanley is the company's slated advisor on the matter.[59]
After making its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on 3 April 2018, CNBC reported that Spotify opened at $165.90, more than 25% above its reference price of $132.[60]
2020 hacking incident
On 3 July 2020, cybersecurity firm VPNMentor discovered a database containing 380 million individual records, including the logins and passwords of Spotify users.[61] The database was thought to be evidence of an impending credential stuffingcyberattack targeting Spotify[62] as it contained the credentials of up to 350,000 compromised user accounts.[63] In response to the attack, Spotify issued a rolling reset of passwords for affected accounts in November 2020.[64]
Acquisitions, podcasting and exclusivity deals
In May 2013, Spotify acquired music discovery app Tunigo.[65] In March 2014, it acquired The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company.[66][67] In June 2015, Spotify announced it had acquired Seed Scientific, a data science consulting firm and analytics company.In a comment to TechCrunch, Spotify said that Seed Scientific's team would lead an advanced analytics unit within the company, focused on developing data services.[68][69] In January 2016, it acquired social and messaging startups Cord Project and Soundwave,[70]
Company partnerships
In January 2015, Sony announced PlayStation Music, a new music service with Spotify as its exclusive partner.PlayStation Music incorporates the Spotify service into Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 gaming consoles, and Sony Xperia mobile devices.The service launched on 30 March 2015.[115] In March 2017, Spotify announced a partnership with the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference for 2017, presenting specific content in special playlists through an SXSW hub in Spotify's apps. The integration also enabled Spotify within the SXSW GO app to help users discover and explore artists performing at the conference. Two more partnerships were announced in March; one with WNYC Studios, and one with Waze.The WNYC Studios partnership brought various podcasts from WNYC to Spotify, including Note to Self, On the Media and Here's the Thing.Spotify also announced that the third season of WNYC Studios' 2 Dope Queens
Dispute with Apple
In July 2015, Spotify launched an email campaign to urge its App Store subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and start new ones through its website, bypassing the 30% transaction fee for in-app purchases required for iOS applications by technology company Apple Inc.[132] A later update to the Spotify app on iOS was rejected by Apple, prompting Spotify's general counsel Horacio Gutierrez to write a letter to Apple's then-general counsel Bruce Sewell, stating: "This latest episode raises serious concerns under both U.S. and EU competition law. It continues a troubling pattern of behavior by Apple to exclude and diminish the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music, particularly when seen against the backdrop of Apple's previous anticompetitive conduct aimed at Spotify ... we cannot stand by as Apple uses the App Store approval process as a weapon to harm competitors."[133]
Sewell responded to the letter: "We find it troubling that you are asking for exemptions to the rules we apply to all developers and are publicly resorting to rumors and half-truths about our service." He also elaborated that "Our guidelines apply equally to all app developers, whether they are game developers, e-book sellers, video-streaming services or digital music distributors; and regardless of whether they compete against Apple. We did not alter our behavior or our rules when we introduced our own music streaming service or when Spotify became a competitor". Furthermore, he stated that "There is nothing in Apple's conduct that 'amounts to a violation of applicable antitrust laws.' Far from it. ... I would be happy to facilitate an expeditious review and approval of your app as soon as you provide us with something that is compliant with the App Store's rules".
Dispute with Kakao Entertainment Corp.
On 1 March 2021, Spotify confirmed that its platform would no longer have access to music from artists represented by Kakao Entertainment.However, after talking it out and renewing the contracts between the two, Spotify later announced that it had reached an agreement with Kakao Entertainment, allowing its content to be available once again on the platform across the globe.[145]
Functionality
In November 2021, Spotify hid the "shuffle" button for albums following a request by singer Adele, arguing that tracks in albums are supposed to be played back in the order specified by the artist to "tell a story".[146]
NFTs
In May 2022, Spotify began testing a feature that would allow select artists to promote their NFTs via their profiles.Some artists included in this initial test phase were Steve Aoki and the Wombats.The testing was very limited in nature and was only available on Spotify's Android app in the US.[147]
Artificial streams
In May 2023, Spotify removed tens of thousands of songs, roughly 7% of the tracks uploaded by the Boomy, due to suspected "artificial streaming", the practice of using online bots to inflate the listening statistics.[148]
Ghost artists
In 2022, the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter compared Spotify streaming data against documents retrieved from the Swedish copyright collection society STIM, and found that around twenty songwriters were behind the work of more than five hundred "artists," and that thousands of their tracks were on Spotify and had been streamed millions of times.[149] In December 2024, Harper's Magazine released a report stating that Spotify was padding out playlists with ghost artists created by production companies in order to minimise royalty costs and increase profits.According to the report, the practice started in 2017 with a program called Perfect Fit Content (PFC).[150][149]
Donald Trump donation
In 2025, Spotify donated $150,000 to President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony, as well as hosted an inauguration-related brunch.[151][152]
DJ software
Spotify supports integration with DJ software, allowing DJs to mix with music streamed from the platform.[153] This integration was removed in July 2020[154] but was reintroduced in September 2025, now supporting Serato, Rekordbox, and Djay.[153] Though all three applications support real-time stem separation and mixing, this functionality is disabled on music streamed from Spotify.[153] Caching tracks for offline use is also unsupported in DJ software.[153]
2025 hacking incident
In December 2025, over 300 terabytes of files were scraped from Spotify's servers and uploaded to Anna's Archive, totalling 86 million songs uploaded from 2007 to July 2025 that account for 37% of all songs and 99.6% of all listens, as well as 256 million rows of song metadata.Spotify responded to the hacking, condeming it and stating that they have implemented new safeguards against similar attacks and banned user accounts believed to be connected to the leak.[155][156][157]
Streaming records
In October 2015, "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran became the first song to pass 500 million streams.[25] A month later, Spotify announced that "Lean On" by Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring MØ was its most-streamed song of all time with over 525 million streams worldwide.[26] In April 2016, Rihanna overtook Justin Bieber to become the biggest artist on Spotify, with 31.3 million monthly active listeners.[27] In May 2016, Rihanna was overtaken by Drake with 31.85 million monthly listeners.[28] In December 2016, Drake's just-under 36 million monthly listeners were overtaken by the Weeknd's 36.068 million.[29] Later that same month, Drake's song "One Dance" became the first song to hit one billion streams on Spotify.[30][31] Upon its release in August 2017, the single "Look What You Made Me Do" by Taylor Swift earned over eight million streams within 24 hours, breaking the record for the most single-day streams for a track.[32] On 19 June 2018, XXXTentacion's hit single "Sad!" broke Swift's single-day streaming record, amassing 10.4 million streams the day after he was fatally shot in Florida.[33]
User growth
In March 2011, Spotify announced a customer base of 1 million paying subscribers across Europe,[34] and by September 2011, the number of paying subscribers had doubled to two million.[35] In August 2012, Time reported 15 million active users, four million being paying Spotify subscribers.[36] User growth continued, reaching 20 million total active users, including five million paying customers globally and one million paying customers in the United States, in December 2012.[37] By March 2013, the service had 24 million active users, six million being paying subscribers,[38] which grew to 40 million users (including ten million paying) in May 2014,[39] 60 million users (including 15 million paying) in December 2014, 75 million users (20 million paying) in June 2015, 30 million paying subscribers in March 2016,[40] 40 million paying subscribers in September 2016,[41] and 100 million total users in June 2016.[42] In April 2020, Spotify reached 133 million premium users.[43] In countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Spotify registered a fall in users in late February, but it has seen a recovery.[44] In March 2022, Spotify had 182 million premium subscribers.[45] At the end of Q2 2022, Spotify reported 188 million paying subscribers and 433 million total users.[46] At the end of Q3 2024, Spotify reported 252 million subscribers and 640 million monthly active users.[47] In February 2026, Spotify announced that it had added a record number of new users in a single quarter, adding 38 million new users in the three months to the end of December 2025 to reach 751 million monthly users.[48]
Premium-exclusive albums
The Financial Times reported in March 2017 that, as part of its efforts to renegotiate new licensing deals with music labels, Spotify and major record labels had agreed that Spotify would restrict some newly released albums to its Premium tier, with Spotify receiving a reduction in royalty fees to do so. Select albums would be available only on the Premium tier for a period of time, before general release. The deal "may be months away from being finalized, but Spotify is said to have cleared this particular clause with major record labels".[49][50][51] New reports in April confirmed that Spotify and Universal Music Group had reached an agreement to allow artists part of Universal to limit their new album releases to the Premium service tier for a maximum of two weeks.Ek commented that "We know that not every album by every artist should be released the same way, and we've worked hard with UMG to develop a new, flexible release policy. Starting today, Universal artists can choose to release new albums on premium only for two weeks, offering subscribers an earlier chance to explore the complete creative work, while the singles are available across Spotify for all our listeners to enjoy".[52][53][54] It was announced later in April that this type of agreement would be extended to indie artists signed to the Merlin Network agency.[55][56]
Direct public offering
Spotify went public on the stock market in April 2018 using a direct public offering rather than an initial public offering.This approach is not intended to raise fresh capital, but to let investors get their returns.[57][58][59]Morgan Stanley is the company's slated advisor on the matter.[59]
After making its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on 3 April 2018, CNBC reported that Spotify opened at $165.90, more than 25% above its reference price of $132.[60]
2020 hacking incident
On 3 July 2020, cybersecurity firm VPNMentor discovered a database containing 380 million individual records, including the logins and passwords of Spotify users.[61] The database was thought to be evidence of an impending credential stuffingcyberattack targeting Spotify[62] as it contained the credentials of up to 350,000 compromised user accounts.[63] In response to the attack, Spotify issued a rolling reset of passwords for affected accounts in November 2020.[64]
Acquisitions, podcasting and exclusivity deals
In May 2013, Spotify acquired music discovery app Tunigo.[65] In March 2014, it acquired The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company.[66][67] In June 2015, Spotify announced it had acquired Seed Scientific, a data science consulting firm and analytics company.In a comment to TechCrunch, Spotify said that Seed Scientific's team would lead an advanced analytics unit within the company, focused on developing data services.[68][69] In January 2016, it acquired social and messaging startups Cord Project and Soundwave,[70] followed in April 2016 by CrowdAlbum, a "startup that collects photos and videos of performances shared on social networks", and would "enhance the development of products that help artists understand, activate, and monetize their audiences".[71] In November 2016, Spotify acquired Preact, a "cloud-based platform and service developed for companies that operate on subscription models which helps reduce churn and build up its subscriber numbers".[72]
In March 2017, Spotify acquired Sonalytic, an audio detection startup, for an undisclosed amount of money. Spotify stated that Sonalytic would be used to improve the company's personalized playlists, better match songs with compositions, and improve the company's publishing data system.[73] Later that month, Spotify also acquired MightyTV, an app connected to television streaming services, including Netflix and HBO Go, that recommends content to users.Spotify intended to use MightyTV to improve its advertising efforts on the free tier of service.[74] In April 2017, it acquired Mediachain, a blockchain startup that had been developing a decentralized database system for managing attribution, and other metadata for media.[75][76] This was followed in May 2017 with the acquisition of artificial intelligence startup Niland, which uses technology to improve personalisation and recommendation features for users.[77][78]
On 12 April 2018, Spotify acquired the music licensing platform Loudr.[81] In August 2018, Spotify bought the exclusive rights to The Joe Budden Podcast and expanded the show to a twice-weekly schedule.[82] On 6 February 2019, Spotify acquired the podcast networks Gimlet Media and Anchor FM Inc., with the goal of establishing themselves as a leading figure in podcasting.[83][84][85] On 26 March 2019, Spotify announced it would acquire another podcast network, Parcast.[86][87]
On 5 February 2020, Spotify announced its intent to acquire Bill Simmons' sports and pop culture blog and podcast network The Ringer for an undisclosed amount.On 19 May 2020, Spotify acquired exclusive rights to stream the popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience beginning in September of that year, under an agreement valued at around US$100 million .[91][92][93][94]
In November 2020, Spotify announced plans to acquire Megaphone from The Slate Group for US$235 million.[95] In March 2021, Spotify acquired app developer Betty Labs and its live social audio app, Locker Room,[96] On 12 May 2021.Armchair Expert announced on Instagram that the podcast would be available exclusively on Spotify beginning 1 July, saying they would continue to maintain the same creative control over the show after the move.[97][98] Locker Room was rebranded in June 2021 as Spotify Greenroom, and turned into a Clubhouse competitor.[99] The same month, Spotify acquired Podz, a podcast discovery startup.[100]
In February 2022, Spotify acquired Chartable and Podsights. Both are podcast advertising companies.[104] In 2022, Spotify Greenroom rebranded as Spotify Live,[105] which was subsequently planned to be shut down in April 2023.[106] In June 2022, Spotify acquired Sonantic, a synthetic voice and video developer.[107] In July 2022, Spotify acquired Heardle, a Wordle-inspired music trivia game, for an undisclosed amount;[108][109] Heardle was shut down in May 2023.[110] In October 2022, Spotify acquired the Dublin-based content moderation startup, Kinzen.[111]
Company partnerships
In January 2015, Sony announced PlayStation Music, a new music service with Spotify as its exclusive partner.PlayStation Music incorporates the Spotify service into Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 gaming consoles, and Sony Xperia mobile devices.The service launched on 30 March 2015.[115] In March 2017, Spotify announced a partnership with the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference for 2017, presenting specific content in special playlists through an SXSW hub in Spotify's apps. The integration also enabled Spotify within the SXSW GO app to help users discover and explore artists performing at the conference. Two more partnerships were announced in March; one with WNYC Studios, and one with Waze.The WNYC Studios partnership brought various podcasts from WNYC to Spotify, including Note to Self, On the Media and Here's the Thing.Spotify also announced that the third season of WNYC Studios' 2 Dope Queens podcast would premiere with a two-week exclusivity period on the service on 21 March 2017.[116] The Waze partnership allows Waze app users to view directions to destinations within the Spotify app and access their Spotify playlists through the Waze app.[117]
In October 2017, Microsoft announced that it would be ending its Groove Music streaming service by December, with all music from users transferring to Spotify as part of a new partnership.[118] In December, Spotify and Tencent's music arm, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), agreed to swap stakes and make an investment in each other's music businesses.[119][120] As a result of this transaction, Spotify gained a 9% stake in TME with TME gaining a 7.5% stake in Spotify.[121]
In February 2018, Spotify integrated with the gaming-oriented voice chat service Discord on desktop clients, allowing users to display their currently playing song as a rich presence on their profile, and invite other users with Spotify Premium to group "listening parties".[122] In April, Spotify announced a discounted entertainment bundle with video-on-demand provider Hulu, which included discounted rates for university students.[123]
In May 2020, Spotify teamed up with ESPN and Netflix to curate podcasts around their Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance,[124] and in September, Spotify signed a deal with Chernin Entertainment to produce movies and TV shows.[125]
In 2020 and 2021, Spotify and DC, a brand at the time under Warner Bros. Entertainment signed deals to create audio shows on the platform around characters such as Catwoman, Wonder Woman, the Riddler, Batgirl, Superman and Lois Lane, among others.[126][127]
In 2022, Spotify became the official streaming partner of FC Barcelona.[128]
In May 2022, Spotify announced a partnership with the online game platform and game creation system Roblox, the partnership saw Spotify as the first streaming brand to have a presence within the game with the launch of "Spotify Island".[129]
In March 2023, Spotify announced a partnership with Patreon, which Spotify claimed would "enable creators to expand their creative business through direct payments from fans, and allow fans to listen to their Patreon content on Spotify".[112][130]
On 6 October 2025, Spotify announced a partnership with OpenAI to bring music and podcast recommendations inside ChatGPT, allowing Spotify users to discover and queue new music through conversations, rather than search.Listeners will be able to link their Spotify to ChatGPT, asking it to find anything from a specific playlist to a podcast topic.[131]
Dispute with Apple
In July 2015, Spotify launched an email campaign to urge its App Store subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and start new ones through its website, bypassing the 30% transaction fee for in-app purchases required for iOS applications by technology company Apple Inc.[132] A later update to the Spotify app on iOS was rejected by Apple, prompting Spotify's general counsel Horacio Gutierrez to write a letter to Apple's then-general counsel Bruce Sewell, stating: "This latest episode raises serious concerns under both U.S. and EU competition law. It continues a troubling pattern of behavior by Apple to exclude and diminish the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music, particularly when seen against the backdrop of Apple's previous anticompetitive conduct aimed at Spotify ... we cannot stand by as Apple uses the App Store approval process as a weapon to harm competitors."[133]
Sewell responded to the letter: "We find it troubling that you are asking for exemptions to the rules we apply to all developers and are publicly resorting to rumors and half-truths about our service." He also elaborated that "Our guidelines apply equally to all app developers, whether they are game developers, e-book sellers, video-streaming services or digital music distributors; and regardless of whether they compete against Apple. We did not alter our behavior or our rules when we introduced our own music streaming service or when Spotify became a competitor". Furthermore, he stated that "There is nothing in Apple's conduct that 'amounts to a violation of applicable antitrust laws.' Far from it. ... I would be happy to facilitate an expeditious review and approval of your app as soon as you provide us with something that is compliant with the App Store's rules".[134][135]
In the following months, Spotify joined several other companies in filing a letter with the European Union's antitrust body indirectly accusing Apple and Google of "abusing their 'privileged position' at the top of the market", by referring to "some" companies as having "transformed into 'gatekeepers' rather than 'gateways'".[136][137] The complaint led to the European Union announcing that it would prepare an initiative by the end of 2017 for a possible law addressing unfair competition practices.[138][139]
Spotify released the first version of its Apple Watch app in November 2018, allowing playback control of the iPhone via the watch.Users can also choose which devices to play music on via Bluetooth.[140] In a further escalation of the dispute with Apple, on 13 March 2019, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission over unfair app store practices. Two days later, Apple responded, stating that the claim was misleading rhetoric and that Spotify wanted benefits of a free app without being a free app. Spotify responded with a statement calling Apple a monopolist and stated that it had only filed the complaint as Apple's actions hurt competition and consumers and clearly violated the law. It also said that Apple believed Spotify users on the app store were Apple's customers and not Spotify's.[141]
Apple responded to Spotify's claims by counter-claiming that Spotify's market reach and user base would not have been possible without the Apple App Store platform. Additionally, Apple stated that it has attempted to work with Spotify to integrate the service better with Apple's products, such as Siri and Apple Watch.[142] In 2019, under iOS 13, it became possible to play Spotify music using Siri commands.[143]
Spotify was one of the first companies to support Epic Games in its lawsuit against Apple, which was filed after Epic also tried to bypass Apple's 30% fee for microtransactions in Fortnite.In September 2020, Spotify, Epic, and other companies founded The Coalition for App Fairness, which aims for better conditions for the inclusion of apps in app stores.[144]
Dispute with Kakao Entertainment Corp.
On 1 March 2021, Spotify confirmed that its platform would no longer have access to music from artists represented by Kakao Entertainment.However, after talking it out and renewing the contracts between the two, Spotify later announced that it had reached an agreement with Kakao Entertainment, allowing its content to be available once again on the platform across the globe.[145]
Functionality
In November 2021, Spotify hid the "shuffle" button for albums following a request by singer Adele, arguing that tracks in albums are supposed to be played back in the order specified by the artist to "tell a story".[146]
NFTs
In May 2022, Spotify began testing a feature that would allow select artists to promote their NFTs via their profiles.Some artists included in this initial test phase were Steve Aoki and the Wombats.The testing was very limited in nature and was only available on Spotify's Android app in the US.[147]
Artificial streams
In May 2023, Spotify removed tens of thousands of songs, roughly 7% of the tracks uploaded by the Boomy, due to suspected "artificial streaming", the practice of using online bots to inflate the listening statistics.[148]
Ghost artists
In 2022, the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter compared Spotify streaming data against documents retrieved from the Swedish copyright collection society STIM, and found that around twenty songwriters were behind the work of more than five hundred "artists," and that thousands of their tracks were on Spotify and had been streamed millions of times.[149] In December 2024, Harper's Magazine released a report stating that Spotify was padding out playlists with ghost artists created by production companies in order to minimise royalty costs and increase profits.According to the report, the practice started in 2017 with a program called Perfect Fit Content (PFC).[150][149]
Donald Trump donation
In 2025, Spotify donated $150,000 to President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony, as well as hosted an inauguration-related brunch.[151][152]
DJ software
Spotify supports integration with DJ software, allowing DJs to mix with music streamed from the platform.[153] This integration was removed in July 2020[154] but was reintroduced in September 2025, now supporting Serato, Rekordbox, and Djay.[153] Though all three applications support real-time stem separation and mixing, this functionality is disabled on music streamed from Spotify.[153] Caching tracks for offline use is also unsupported in DJ software.[153]
2025 hacking incident
In December 2025, over 300 terabytes of files were scraped from Spotify's servers and uploaded to Anna's Archive, totalling 86 million songs uploaded from 2007 to July 2025 that account for 37% of all songs and 99.6% of all listens, as well as 256 million rows of song metadata.Spotify responded to the hacking, condeming it and stating that they have implemented new safeguards against similar attacks and banned user accounts believed to be connected to the leak.[155][156][157]
The union was voluntarily recognized by Ringer management four days later.[173] In February 2020, Spotify announced it was acquiring The Ringer, and inheriting the previously established union.[174][175] A year later, in April 2021, writers and producers ratified their first collective agreement with Gimlet Media and Ringer.
It would last 3 years, with minimum base salary of $57,000 for Ringer staff and $73,000 for Gimlet producers.
There was no provision regarding worker ownership of content created, one of the initial demands.[176][177]
Spotify acquired Parcast in March 2019.[178] Six months later, Parcast workers went public with their union drive,[179] which was recognized a month later by Parcast.[180] After 15 months of bargaining, the Parcast union consisting of 56 workers ratified their first collective agreement, which included a minimum salary of $70,000, annual increases and affirmative action while hiring.[180]
In March 2024, The Writers Guild of America, East ratified a collective agreement with Ringer and Spotify Studios (Spotify Studios was formed as a merger of Gimlet Media, Parcast and their respective unions) which increased minimum base salaries to $65,000, protections for migrant employees and included safe-guards against usage of artificial intelligence to create "digital replicas" of their voices.[168]
In November 2018, Spotify announced it was opening up Spotify Connect to all of the users using its Free service, however, these changes still required products supporting Spotify Connect to support the latest software development kit.[199][200]
In July 2020,[201] Spotify added another tier, Premium Duo.[202] This is aimed at couples and it lets up to two people (living at the same address) share a subscription.
In February 2021, Spotify announced its plans to introduce a HiFi subscription, to offer listening in high fidelity, lossless sound quality.[203] On 10 January 2022, the HiFi tier was delayed indefinitely.On 10 September 2025, it was announced that Lossless would be rolling out to Premium listeners gradually to more than 50 markets through October.[204]
In August 2021, Spotify launched a test subscription tier called Spotify Plus. The subscription costs $0.99 and is supposed to be a combination of the free and premium tiers. Subscribers to this plan will still receive ads but will get the ability to listen to songs without shuffle mode and skip any number of tracks. The company reported that the tier conditions may change before its full launch.[205]
In September 2025, Spotify began removing restrictions preventing free users from listening to specific tracks. Mobile listeners are now able to tap on any song or search for what they’d like to play. This was previously limited to desktop and iPad users only.[206]
Spotify also offers an "Audiobook Access" option giving paying subscribers access to its audiobook catalog for a limited time each month.[207]
Still shows sponsored content, such as Spotify Showcase banners.[191]
Monetization
In 2008, just after launch, the company made a loss of 31.8 million Swedish kronor (US$4.4 million).[208] In October 2010, Wired reported that Spotify was making more money for labels in Sweden than any other retailer "online or off".[209] Years after growth and expansion, a November 2012 report suggested strong momentum for the company.In 2011, it reported a near US$60 million net loss from revenue of $244 million, while it was expected to generate a net loss of $40 million from revenue of $500 million in 2012 .[210] Another source of income was music purchases from within the app, however this service was removed in January 2013.[211]
In May 2016, Spotify announced "Sponsored Playlists", a monetisation opportunity in which brands can specify the audiences they have in mind, with Spotify matching the marketer with suitable music in a playlist.[212][213] That September, Spotify announced that it had paid a total of over $5 billion to the music industry.In June 2017, as part of renegotiated licenses with Universal Music Group and Merlin Network, Spotify's financial filings revealed its agreement to pay more than $2 billion in minimum payments over the next two years.[214][215][216]
As of 2017, Spotify was not yet a profitable company.[217] Spotify's revenue for Q1 2020 amounted to €1.85 billion ($2 billion). A large part of this sum, €1.7 billion ($1.84 billion), came from Spotify Premium subscribers. Gross profit in the same quarter amounted to €472 million ($511 million), with an operating loss of €17 million ($18 million).[218] Despite subscriber and podcasts growth, during Q2 of 2020, Spotify reported a loss of €356 million (€1.91 per share).The "deeper" loss came as a result of the company's tax debt to over one-third of its employees in Sweden.[219] Spotify became profitable for the first time in 2024 with a net profit of €1.14 billion ($1.17 billion).[220][221]
By 2024, Spotify added 15 hours of audiobook listening to its premium tier. In order to balance the expense of licensing audiobooks and music together, the company started a new "bundle" royalty rate to songwriters. Billboard estimated that the changes will pay songwriters and publishers $150 million less "from premium, duo and family plans for the first 12 months that this is in effect, compared to what they would have earned if these three subscriptions were never bundled."[222]
Funding
In February 2010, Spotify received a small investment from Founders Fund, where board member Sean Parker was recruited to assist Spotify in "winning the labels over in the world's largest music market".In June 2011, Spotify secured $100 million of funding and planned to use this to support its US launch.[223] The new round of funding valued the company at $1 billion.[224] A Goldman Sachs-led round of funding closed in November 2012, raising around $100 million at a $3 billion valuation.In April 2015, Spotify began another round of fundraising, with a report from The Wall Street Journal stating it was seeking $400 million, which would value the company at $8.4 billion.The financing was closed in June 2015, with Spotify raising $526 million, at a value of $8.53 billion .[225] In January 2016, Spotify raised another $500 million through convertible bonds.In March 2016, Spotify raised $1 billion in financing by debt plus a discount of 20% on shares once the initial public offering (IPO) of shares takes place.[226]
Funding
In February 2010, Spotify received a small investment from Founders Fund, where board member Sean Parker was recruited to assist Spotify in "winning the labels over in the world's largest music market".In June 2011, Spotify secured $100 million of funding and planned to use this to support its US launch.[223] The new round of funding valued the company at $1 billion.[224] A Goldman Sachs-led round of funding closed in November 2012, raising around $100 million at a $3 billion valuation.In April 2015, Spotify began another round of fundraising, with a report from The Wall Street Journal stating it was seeking $400 million, which would value the company at $8.4 billion.The financing was closed in June 2015, with Spotify raising $526 million, at a value of $8.53 billion .[225] In January 2016, Spotify raised another $500 million through convertible bonds.In March 2016, Spotify raised $1 billion in financing by debt plus a discount of 20% on shares once the initial public offering (IPO) of shares takes place.[226] The company was, according to TechCrunch, planning to launch on the stock market in 2017, but in 2017 it was seen as planning on doing the IPO in 2018 to "build up a better balance sheet and work on shifting its business model to improve its margins".[227]
Downloads
In March 2009, Spotify began offering music downloads in the United Kingdom, France, and Spain.Users could purchase tracks from Spotify, which partnered with 7digital to incorporate the feature.The ability to purchase and download music tracks via the app was removed on 4 January 2013.[211]
Spotify for Artists
In November 2015, Spotify introduced a "Fan Insights" panel in limited beta form, letting artists and managers access data on monthly listeners, geographical data, demographic information, music preferences and more.[228] In April 2017, the panel was upgraded to leave beta status, renamed as "Spotify for Artists", and opened to all artists and managers.Additional features include the ability to get "verified" status with a blue checkmark on an artist's profile, receiving artist support from Spotify, customising the profile page with photos and promoting a certain song as their "pick".[229][230]
In September 2018, Spotify announced "Upload Beta", allowing artists to upload directly to the platform instead of going through a distributor or record label.[231] The feature was rolled out to a small number of US-based artists by invitation only. Uploading was free and artists received 100% of the revenue from songs they uploaded; artists were able to control when their release went public. On 1 July 2019, Spotify deprecated the program and announced plans to stop accepting direct uploads by the end of that month and eventually remove all content uploaded in this manner.[232]
Industry initiatives
In June 2017, Variety reported that Spotify would announce "Secret Genius", a new initiative aimed at highlighting songwriters and producers, and the effect those people have on the music industry and the artists' careers.The project, which would feature awards, "Songshops" songwriting workshops, curated playlists, and podcasts, is an effort to "shine a light on these people behind the scenes who play such a big role in some of the most important moments of our lives. When the general public hears a song, they automatically associate it with the artist who sings it, not the people behind the scenes who make it happen, so we thought the title Secret Genius was appropriate", Spotify's former Global Head of Creator Services Troy Carter told Variety the first awards ceremony would take place in late 2017, and was intended to honour "the top songwriters, producers and publishers in the industry as well as up-and-coming talent".Additionally, as part of "The Ambassador Program", 13 songwriters would each host a Songshop workshop, in which their peers would collaboratively attempt to create a hit song, with the first workshop taking place in Los Angeles in June 2017.[233]
In October 2017, Spotify launched "Rise", a program aimed at promoting emerging artists.[234][235] In February 2020, Spotify announced it would be featuring new songwriter pages and 'written by' playlists. This was aimed at giving fans a behind the scenes look at the process of some of their favorite songwriters. Initial pages added included Justin Trantor, Meghan Trainor, and Missy Elliott.Spotify thereafter announced it was planning to add more of these pages and playlists to highlight songwriters.[236][237]
In January 2021, Spotify made a selection of audiobooks available on the platform as a test of developing a greater breadth of content for users.[238] The addition of audiobooks to the service would create similar offerings to that of Amazon's Audible.In 2020, Spotify partnered with Wizarding World to release a series of recorded readings of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by various stars of the franchise.[239] In November 2023, Spotify expanded free access to 200,000 audiobooks for Spotify Premium subscribers.[240] In April 2024, Spotify expanded access to the audiobooks from the US, UK and Australia to include Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.The company also announced an expansion of its book catalogue to 250,000 books.[241][222]
In recent years, Spotify has awarded plaques to artists when their songs reach a billion streams on the platform.[242][243][244]
In March 2020, Spotify held its inaugural awards ceremony, the Spotify Awards, at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City.[245] Winners were determined entirely by streaming data from Spotify users in Mexico.The trophies were crafted by D'Argenta, a Mexican luxury silversmith based in Mexico City.[246]Bad Bunny took home seven of the 57 awards, including Spotify Artist of the Year and Male Artist with the Most Streams.Karol G won four awards including Most-Streamed Female Artist.Other major winners included J Balvin (Most Shared Artist), Danna Paola (Biggest Increase in Fans: Female Artist), Tainy (Biggest Increase in Fans: Male Artist), and Reik (Most-Streamed Mexican Artist Globally).The most-streamed track was "Calma (Remix)" by Pedro Capó and Farruko.[247]
Stations by Spotify
On 31 January 2018, Spotify started testing a new Pandora-styled standalone app called Stations by Spotify for Australian Android users.[248] It featured 62 music channels, each devoted to a particular genre. Spotify itself has two channels named after its playlists that link directly to the users' profile: "Release Radar" and "Discover Weekly". The aim was to help users to listen to the music they want without information overload or spending time building their own playlists. At launch, the skipping feature was not featured to "reinforce the feel of radio", but it was quietly added later and with no limits. Songs can be "loved" but cannot be "hated". If a song is "loved", a custom radio channel will be created based on it, and when there are at least 15 of these songs, a "My Favourites" channel is unlocked.
The standalone app was made available to all iOS and Android users in the United States since 4 June 2019.[249]
Spotify announced the app would be shut down on 16 May 2022. The company said users would be able to login into the main Spotify app with their Stations account and transfer their stations into Spotify.[250]
However, after the June 2014 announcement of a Web
API
that allowed third-party developers to integrate Spotify content in their own web applications, the company discontinued its Spotify Apps platform in October, stating that its new development tools for the Spotify web player fulfilled many of the advantages of the former Spotify Apps service that allows users to access the service directly from their web browser without downloading the app.
In April 2012, Spotify introduced a "Spotify Play Button", an embeddable music player that can be added to blogs, websites, or social media profiles, that lets visitors listen to a specific song, playlist, or album without leaving the page.[263] The following November, the company began rolling out a web player, with a similar design to its computer programs, but without the requirement of any installation.[264]
In December 2012, Spotify introduced a "Follow" tab and a "Discover" tab,[265] along with a "Collection" section.[266] "Follow" lets users follow artists and friends to see what they are listening to, while "Discover" directs users to new releases as well as music, review, and concert recommendations based on listening history.Users can add tracks to a "Collection" section of the app, rather than adding them to a specific playlist.[267][268] The features were announced by CEO Daniel Ek at a press conference, with Ek saying that a common user complaint about the service was that "Spotify is great when you know what music you want to listen to, but not when you don't".[269]
In May 2015, Spotify announced a new "Home" start-page that could recommend music. The company also introduced "Spotify Running", a feature aimed at improving music while running with music matched to running tempo, and announced that podcasts and videos ("entertainment, news and clips") would be coming to Spotify, along with "Spotify Originals" content.[270][271][272]
In December 2015, Spotify debuted Spotify Wrapped, a program that creates playlists based on each user's most listened-to songs from the year.Users then can view and save this playlist at the end of the year.[273][274]
In January 2016, Spotify and music annotation service Genius formed a partnership, bringing annotation information from Genius into infocards presented while songs are playing in Spotify.The functionality is limited to selected playlists and was only available on Spotify's iOS app at launch,[275][276][277] being expanded to the Android app in April 2017.This feature was known as "Behind the Lyrics".[278][279] As of 18 November 2021, "Behind the Lyrics" has been replaced with auto-generated real-time lyrics due to consumer demand.The feature is powered by lyrics providers Musixmatch[280] and PetitLyrics (only in Japan).
In May 2017, Spotify introduced Spotify Codes for its mobile apps, a way for users to share specific artists, tracks, playlists or albums with other people. Users find the relevant content to share and press a "soundwave-style barcode" on the display. A camera icon in the apps' search fields lets other users point their device's camera at the code, which takes them to the same content.[281][282][283]
In January 2019, Spotify introduced Car View for Android, allowing devices running Android to have a compact Now Playing screen when the device is connected to a car's Bluetooth.[284][285] Also in January 2019, Spotify beta-tested its Canvas feature, where artists or labels can upload looping 3 to 8-second moving visuals to their tracks, replacing album covers in the "Now Playing" view; users have the option to turn off this feature.Canvas is only available for Spotify's iOS and Android mobile apps.[286] Months later, Spotify tested its own version of stories (the sharing format popularized by social apps) known as "Storyline", and the focus is on allowing artists to share their own insights, inspiration, details about their creative process or other meanings behind the music.[287]
In March 2021, Spotify announced an upcoming option for higher-resolution sound, Spotify Hi-Fi.[288]
In September 2025, Lossless audio, which allows Spotify users to listen to songs in very high quality, became available through Spotify premium.[289]
In March 2026, Spotify announced that the Spotify for Windows PC client now can support WASAPI exclusive mode which can support bit perfect playback, but this feature requires Spotify Premium subscription.[290]
Playlists and discovery
In July 2015, Spotify launched Discover Weekly, a playlist generated weekly. Updated on Mondays, it provides users with music recommendations.[291][292] In December 2015, Quartz reported that songs in Discover Weekly playlists had been streamed 1.7 billion times.[293]
In March 2016, Spotify launched six playlists branded as Fresh Finds, including the main playlist and Fire Emoji, Basement, Hiptronix, Six Strings, and Cyclone (hip-hop, electronic, pop, guitar-driven, and experimental music respectively). The playlists spotlight songs by lesser-known musicians and their songs.[294]
In August 2016, Spotify launched Release Radar, a personalized playlist that allows users to stay up-to-date on new music released by the artists they listen to the most. It also helps users discover new music, by mixing in other artists' music. The playlist is updated every Friday, and is a maximum of two hours in length.[295][296]
Spotify provides artists taking part in RADAR with resources and access to integrated marketing opportunities to help them boost their careers, in addition to expanded reach and exposure to 178 markets worldwide.[297] In 2016, Spotify introduced its Daily Mix feature, which creates playlists of music that a user has previously listened to on the platform.[298] In 2017, Spotify introduced RapCaviar, a hip-hop playlist.[299][300] Rap Caviar had 10.9 million followers by 2019, becoming one of Spotify's Top 5 playlists.[301] RapCaviar was originally curated by Tuma Basa.[302] It was relaunched by Carl Chery in 2019.[303]
In June 2019, Spotify launched a custom playlist titled "Your Daily Drive" that closely replicates the drive time format of many traditional radio stations.It combines short-form podcast news updates from The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and PRI with a mix of a user's favorite songs and artists interspersed with tracks the listener has yet to discover."Your Daily Drive", which is found in a user's library under the "Made For You" section, updates throughout the day.[304] In May 2020, Spotify introduced the Group Session feature.This feature allows two or more Premium users in the same location to share control over the music that is being played.[305] The Group Session feature was later expanded to allow any Premium user to join/participate in a Group Session, with a special link the host can send to participants.[306]
In July 2021, Spotify launched the "What's New" feed, a section that collects all new releases and episodes from artists and podcasts that the user follows. The feature is represented by a bell icon on the app's main page and is available on iOS and Android.[307]
In November 2021, Spotify launched the City and Local Pulse charts, aimed at representing the songs listened to in major cities around the world. The charts are available for 200 cities with the most listeners on Spotify.[308]
In 2023, Spotify launched additional features to help independent artists distributing their music on the platform reach a wider array of potential fans. One such feature is a tool that Spotify rolled out in March 2023, called "Discovery Mode". Discovery Mode allows artists who meet certain criteria and have a Spotify For Artists account to submit qualifying songs for Spotify's in-house promotion services. Spotify helps place songs campaigned through Discovery Mode on listeners' personal algorithmic playlists. Discovery Mode does not require an upfront budget. Instead, a 30% commission is applied to recording royalties generated from all streams of selected songs in Discovery Mode contexts—Spotify Radio and Autoplay. All other streams of selected songs outside of Spotify Radio and Autoplay remain commission-free.[309] In September 2023, Spotify introduced its latest playlist update 'Daylist', a new kind of playlist which adapts to the user's mood throughout the day.[310][311]
In April 2025, Spotify expanded its AI Playlist beta feature to Premium listeners in over 40 new English-speaking markets, including countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. The tool allows users to generate personalized playlists from text prompts describing genres, moods, artists, activities, or creative ideas like animals, movie characters, colors, or emojis. Users can refine playlists with additional instructions, such as "more upbeat" or "happier songs". As of 24 April 2025, the feature was available in markets including Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Burundi, Canada, Curaçao, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Tonga, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.[312][313]
Playlists and discovery
In July 2015, Spotify launched Discover Weekly, a playlist generated weekly. Updated on Mondays, it provides users with music recommendations.[291][292] In December 2015, Quartz reported that songs in Discover Weekly playlists had been streamed 1.7 billion times.[293]
In March 2016, Spotify launched six playlists branded as Fresh Finds, including the main playlist and Fire Emoji, Basement, Hiptronix, Six Strings, and Cyclone (hip-hop, electronic, pop, guitar-driven, and experimental music respectively). The playlists spotlight songs by lesser-known musicians and their songs.[294]
In August 2016, Spotify launched Release Radar, a personalized playlist that allows users to stay up-to-date on new music released by the artists they listen to the most. It also helps users discover new music, by mixing in other artists' music. The playlist is updated every Friday, and is a maximum of two hours in length.[295][296]
Spotify provides artists taking part in RADAR with resources and access to integrated marketing opportunities to help them boost their careers, in addition to expanded reach and exposure to 178 markets worldwide.[297] In 2016, Spotify introduced its Daily Mix feature, which creates playlists of music that a user has previously listened to on the platform.[298] In 2017, Spotify introduced RapCaviar, a hip-hop playlist.[299][300] Rap Caviar had 10.9 million followers by 2019, becoming one of Spotify's Top 5 playlists.[301] RapCaviar was originally curated by Tuma Basa.[302] It was relaunched by Carl Chery in 2019.[303]
In June 2019, Spotify launched a custom playlist titled "Your Daily Drive" that closely replicates the drive time format of many traditional radio stations.It combines short-form podcast news updates from The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and PRI with a mix of a user's favorite songs and artists interspersed with tracks the listener has yet to discover."Your Daily Drive", which is found in a user's library under the "Made For You" section, updates throughout the day.[304] In May 2020, Spotify introduced the Group Session feature.This feature allows two or more Premium users in the same location to share control over the music that is being played.[305] The Group Session feature was later expanded to allow any Premium user to join/participate in a Group Session, with a special link the host can send to participants.[306]
In July 2021, Spotify launched the "What's New" feed, a section that collects all new releases and episodes from artists and podcasts that the user follows. The feature is represented by a bell icon on the app's main page and is available on iOS and Android.[307]
In November 2021, Spotify launched the City and Local Pulse charts, aimed at representing the songs listened to in major cities around the world. The charts are available for 200 cities with the most listeners on Spotify.[308]
In 2023, Spotify launched additional features to help independent artists distributing their music on the platform reach a wider array of potential fans. One such feature is a tool that Spotify rolled out in March 2023, called "Discovery Mode". Discovery Mode allows artists who meet certain criteria and have a Spotify For Artists account to submit qualifying songs for Spotify's in-house promotion services. Spotify helps place songs campaigned through Discovery Mode on listeners' personal algorithmic playlists. Discovery Mode does not require an upfront budget. Instead, a 30% commission is applied to recording royalties generated from all streams of selected songs in Discovery Mode contexts—Spotify Radio and Autoplay. All other streams of selected songs outside of Spotify Radio and Autoplay remain commission-free.[309] In September 2023, Spotify introduced its latest playlist update 'Daylist', a new kind of playlist which adapts to the user's mood throughout the day.[310][311]
In April 2025, Spotify expanded its AI Playlist beta feature to Premium listeners in over 40 new English-speaking markets, including countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. The tool allows users to generate personalized playlists from text prompts describing genres, moods, artists, activities, or creative ideas like animals, movie characters, colors, or emojis. Users can refine playlists with additional instructions, such as "more upbeat" or "happier songs". As of 24 April 2025, the feature was available in markets including Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Burundi, Canada, Curaçao, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Tonga, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.[312][313]
Listening limitations
Spotify has experimented with different limitations to users' listening on the Free service tier.
In April 2011, Spotify announced via a blog post that it would drastically cut the amount of music that free members could access, effective 1 May 2011. The post stated that all free members would be limited to ten hours of music streaming per month, and in addition, individual tracks were limited to five plays. New users were exempt from these changes for six months.[314] In March 2013, the five-play individual track limit was removed for users in the United Kingdom, and media reports stated that users in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand never had the limit in the first place.[315][316]
In December 2013, CEO Daniel Ek announced that Android and iOS smartphone users with the free service tier could listen to music in Shuffle mode, a feature in which users can stream music by specific artists and playlists without being able to pick which songs to hear. Mobile listening previously was not allowed in Spotify Free accounts. Ek stated that "We're giving people the best free music experience in the history of the smartphone."[317][318] This limitation does not apply to Android and iOS tablets, or computers.
In January 2014, Spotify removed all time limits for Free users on all platforms, including on computers, which previously had a 10-hour monthly listening limit after a 6-month grace period.[319][320]
In April 2018, Spotify began to allow Free users to listen on-demand to whatever songs they want for an unlimited number of times, as long as the song is on one of the user's 15 personalized discovery playlists.[321]
Before May 2020, all service users were limited to 10,000 songs in their library, after which they would receive an "Epic collection, friend" notification and would not be able to save more music to their library. Spotify later removed this limit.[322]
Technical information
Spotify is proprietary and uses digital rights management (DRM) controls.[324] Spotify's terms and conditions do not permit users to reverse-engineer the application.
Spotify allows users to add local audio files for music not in its catalog into the user's library through Spotify's desktop application, and then allows users to synchronize those music files to Spotify's mobile apps or other computers over the same Wi-Fi network as the primary computer by creating a Spotify playlist, and adding those local audio files to the playlist. Audio files must either be in the .mp3, .mp4 (.mp4 files that have video streams are not supported), or .m4p media formats. This feature is available only for Premium subscribers.
Spotify has a median playback latency of 265 ms (including local cache).[325]
In April 2014, Spotify moved away from the peer-to-peer (P2P) system it had used to distribute music to users. Previously, a desktop user would listen to music from one of three sources: a cached file on the computer, one of Spotify's servers, or from other subscribers through the P2P system. P2P, a well-established Internet distribution system, served as an alternative that reduced Spotify's server resources and costs. However, Spotify ended the P2P setup in 2014, with Spotify's Alison Bonny telling TorrentFreak: "We're gradually phasing out the use of our desktop P2P technology which has helped our users enjoy their music both speedily and seamlessly. We're now at a stage where we can power music delivery through our growing number of servers and ensure our users continue to receive a best-in-class service."[326]
Originally, Spotify had its own servers; however, in 2016, most of its infrastructure was migrated to Google Cloud.[327]
Car Thing
Spotify first announced a voice-activated music-streaming gadget for cars in May 2019. Named the Car Thing, it represents the music-streaming service's first entry into hardware devices.[328] In early 2020, as part of filings to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), submitted images of the device that make it seem much more like a miniature infotainment screen.[329] In April 2021, Spotify rolled out its own voice assistant with the hands-free wake word: "Hey Spotify".[330] Using this, users can perform various actions such as pulling playlists, launching radio stations, playing or pausing songs.This voice-based virtual assistant may be intended more towards Spotify's own hardware such as its "Car Thing".[331] The company discontinued the device in July 2022.[332] In May 2024 Spotify sent out announcements to Car Thing owners, stating that the hardware would fully stop working on 9 December 2024.[333][334]
Security
Ahead of Spotify Wrapped 2024, Spotify changed its API so that modded versions of the client would not work.[335][336]
Social media
Spotify had added social media-related features to its platform, especially to compete for ad revenue and to increase its media-related users.[337][338] Spotify users, like on other social media websites, can share playlists, do direct messaging,[339] have a discovery feed,[340] comment on podcasts,[338][340] share playlists including collaborative ones,[341] do polls and Q&As through podcasters,[340] follow friends and artists,[340] create artist profiles,[338] have a 'for you page',[338] and create a user profile.[341]
Artists through Spotify can sell tickets to their music venue,[338] promote their merchandise,[338] add their videos as stories through Spotify clips,[340] and promote new releases of their work through countdown pages.[340] Spotify also has a 'blend' feature in which two users' music preferences are mixed in a shared playlist.[341] Spotify users can also 'jam' sessions where users can create and contribute live music playing sessions with their Spotify friends.[342] Spotify Wrapped had generated two billion impressions worldwide, and more ninety million Spotify users share their Spotify Wrapped statistics online, especially through social media.[343]
Artists through social media platforms, especially TikTok, often got their popularity boost through Spotify.[344] For example, Lil Nas X's Old Town Road and Doja Cat's Say So started their popularity through TikTok but through Spotify playlists had their popularity accelerated.[344] This furthering of Doja Cat's popularity through Spotify helped with Doja Cat's Paint the Town Red on 21 August 2023 becoming the #1 song on Spotify.This, in turn, made it the first time that a female solo rap artist achieved such a top spot in Spotify.[345]
However, there has been some concern about the music streaming platform's social media features.Among them is an increased lack of non-online social spaces, an increased lack of privacy from strangers, and a source of unbridled expression particularly with its media-related podcasts.[338]
going public
, Spotify announced that artists would be able to make albums temporarily exclusive to paid subscribers if the albums are part of
According to journalist and author Liz Pelly, Spotify, "under the guise of AI-powered recommendations has developed a surveillance apparatus driven by emotion profiling and pseudoscience."
In July 2025, a leak containing the listening data of several politicians, journalists, and businesspeople, titled the Panama Playlists, was released online.[433][434]
In February 2026, Spotify announced that it had added a record number of new users in a single quarter, adding 38 million new users in the three months to the end of December 2025 to reach 751 million monthly users.
followed in April 2016 by CrowdAlbum, a "startup that collects photos and videos of performances shared on social networks", and would "enhance the development of products that help artists understand, activate, and monetize their audiences".
In November 2016, Spotify acquired Preact, a "cloud-based platform and service developed for companies that operate on subscription models which helps reduce churn and build up its subscriber numbers".
In March 2017, Spotify acquired Sonalytic, an audio detection startup, for an undisclosed amount of money. Spotify stated that Sonalytic would be used to improve the company's personalized playlists, better match songs with compositions, and improve the company's publishing data system.[73] Later that month, Spotify also acquired MightyTV, an app connected to television streaming services, including Netflix and HBO Go, that recommends content to users.Spotify intended to use MightyTV to improve its advertising efforts on the free tier of service.[74] In April 2017, it acquired Mediachain, a blockchain startup that had been developing a decentralized database system for managing attribution, and other metadata for media.[75][76] This was followed in May 2017 with the acquisition of artificial intelligence startup Niland, which uses technology to improve personalisation and recommendation features for users.[77][78] In November 2017, Spotify acquired Soundtrap, an online music studio startup.[79][80]
On 12 April 2018, Spotify acquired the music licensing platform Loudr.[81] In August 2018, Spotify bought the exclusive rights to The Joe Budden Podcast and expanded the show to a twice-weekly schedule.[82] On 6 February 2019, Spotify acquired the podcast networks Gimlet Media and Anchor FM Inc., with the goal of establishing themselves as a leading figure in podcasting.[83][84][85] On 26 March 2019, Spotify announced it would acquire another podcast network, Parcast.[86][87] On 12 September 2019, Spotify acquired SoundBetter, a music production marketplace for people in the music industry to collaborate on projects, and distribute music tracks for licensing.[88] In October 2021, SoundBetter was sold back to the founders.[89] On 19 November 2019, Spotify announced the acquisition of the exclusive rights to The Last Podcast on the Left.[90]
On 5 February 2020, Spotify announced its intent to acquire Bill Simmons' sports and pop culture blog and podcast network The Ringer for an undisclosed amount.On 19 May 2020, Spotify acquired exclusive rights to stream the popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience beginning in September of that year, under an agreement valued at around US$100 million .[91][92][93][94]
In November 2020, Spotify announced plans to acquire Megaphone from The Slate Group for US$235 million.[95] In March 2021, Spotify acquired app developer Betty Labs and its live social audio app, Locker Room,[96] On 12 May 2021.Armchair Expert announced on Instagram that the podcast would be available exclusively on Spotify beginning 1 July, saying they would continue to maintain the same creative control over the show after the move.[97][98] Locker Room was rebranded in June 2021 as Spotify Greenroom, and turned into a Clubhouse competitor.[99] The same month, Spotify acquired Podz, a podcast discovery startup.[100] Also the same month, Spotify bought the exclusive rights to the Call Her Daddy podcast.[101] In November 2021, Spotify acquired audiobook company Findaway, including its publishing imprint OrangeSky Audio.[102] In December 2021, Spotify acquired Whooshkaa, a podcast tech company that develops specialized technology that allows radio broadcasters to easily turn their existing audio content into on-demand podcast programming.[103]
In February 2022, Spotify acquired Chartable and Podsights. Both are podcast advertising companies.[104] In 2022, Spotify Greenroom rebranded as Spotify Live,[105] which was subsequently planned to be shut down in April 2023.[106] In June 2022, Spotify acquired Sonantic, a synthetic voice and video developer.[107] In July 2022, Spotify acquired Heardle, a Wordle-inspired music trivia game, for an undisclosed amount;[108][109] Heardle was shut down in May 2023.[110] In October 2022, Spotify acquired the Dublin-based content moderation startup, Kinzen.[111] In 2023, Spotify merged Anchor into its Spotify for Podcasters tool, a rebranding move and to organize its tools for creating, managing, growing, and monetizing their content in one place.[112] In November 2024, Spotify for Podcasters was rebranded to Spotify for Creators.[113] In November 2025, Spotify acquired music database WhoSampled.[114]
podcast would premiere with a two-week exclusivity period on the service on 21 March 2017.
The Waze partnership allows Waze app users to view directions to destinations within the Spotify app and access their Spotify playlists through the Waze app.
In October 2017, Microsoft announced that it would be ending its Groove Music streaming service by December, with all music from users transferring to Spotify as part of a new partnership.[118] In December, Spotify and Tencent's music arm, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), agreed to swap stakes and make an investment in each other's music businesses.[119][120] As a result of this transaction, Spotify gained a 9% stake in TME with TME gaining a 7.5% stake in Spotify.[121]
In February 2018, Spotify integrated with the gaming-oriented voice chat service Discord on desktop clients, allowing users to display their currently playing song as a rich presence on their profile, and invite other users with Spotify Premium to group "listening parties".[122] In April, Spotify announced a discounted entertainment bundle with video-on-demand provider Hulu, which included discounted rates for university students.[123]
In May 2020, Spotify teamed up with ESPN and Netflix to curate podcasts around their Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance,[124] and in September, Spotify signed a deal with Chernin Entertainment to produce movies and TV shows.[125]
In 2020 and 2021, Spotify and DC, a brand at the time under Warner Bros. Entertainment signed deals to create audio shows on the platform around characters such as Catwoman, Wonder Woman, the Riddler, Batgirl, Superman and Lois Lane, among others.[126][127]
In 2022, Spotify became the official streaming partner of FC Barcelona.[128]
In May 2022, Spotify announced a partnership with the online game platform and game creation system Roblox, the partnership saw Spotify as the first streaming brand to have a presence within the game with the launch of "Spotify Island".[129]
In March 2023, Spotify announced a partnership with Patreon, which Spotify claimed would "enable creators to expand their creative business through direct payments from fans, and allow fans to listen to their Patreon content on Spotify".[112][130]
On 6 October 2025, Spotify announced a partnership with OpenAI to bring music and podcast recommendations inside ChatGPT, allowing Spotify users to discover and queue new music through conversations, rather than search.Listeners will be able to link their Spotify to ChatGPT, asking it to find anything from a specific playlist to a podcast topic.[131]
In the following months, Spotify joined several other companies in filing a letter with the European Union's antitrust body indirectly accusing Apple and Google of "abusing their 'privileged position' at the top of the market", by referring to "some" companies as having "transformed into 'gatekeepers' rather than 'gateways'".[136][137] The complaint led to the European Union announcing that it would prepare an initiative by the end of 2017 for a possible law addressing unfair competition practices.[138][139]
Spotify released the first version of its Apple Watch app in November 2018, allowing playback control of the iPhone via the watch.Users can also choose which devices to play music on via Bluetooth.[140] In a further escalation of the dispute with Apple, on 13 March 2019, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission over unfair app store practices. Two days later, Apple responded, stating that the claim was misleading rhetoric and that Spotify wanted benefits of a free app without being a free app. Spotify responded with a statement calling Apple a monopolist and stated that it had only filed the complaint as Apple's actions hurt competition and consumers and clearly violated the law. It also said that Apple believed Spotify users on the app store were Apple's customers and not Spotify's.[141]
Apple responded to Spotify's claims by counter-claiming that Spotify's market reach and user base would not have been possible without the Apple App Store platform. Additionally, Apple stated that it has attempted to work with Spotify to integrate the service better with Apple's products, such as Siri and Apple Watch.[142] In 2019, under iOS 13, it became possible to play Spotify music using Siri commands.[143]
Spotify was one of the first companies to support Epic Games in its lawsuit against Apple, which was filed after Epic also tried to bypass Apple's 30% fee for microtransactions in Fortnite.In September 2020, Spotify, Epic, and other companies founded The Coalition for App Fairness, which aims for better conditions for the inclusion of apps in app stores.[144]
On 12 September 2019, Spotify acquired SoundBetter, a music production marketplace for people in the music industry to collaborate on projects, and distribute music tracks for licensing.
In December 2021, Spotify acquired Whooshkaa, a podcast tech company that develops specialized technology that allows radio broadcasters to easily turn their existing audio content into on-demand podcast programming.
In 2023, Spotify merged Anchor into its Spotify for Podcasters tool, a rebranding move and to organize its tools for creating, managing, growing, and monetizing their content in one place.
in 2017, but in 2017 it was seen as planning on doing the IPO in 2018 to "build up a better balance sheet and work on shifting its business model to improve its margins".
