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Wikipedia

Spotify

February 27, 2023

Spotify (/ˈspɒtɪfaɪ/; Swedish: [ˈspɔ̂tːɪfaj]) is a proprietary Swedish[6] audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.[7] It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 489 million monthly active users, including 205 million paying subscribers, as of December 2022.[4][8] Spotify is listed (through a Luxembourg City-domiciled holding company, Spotify Technology S.A.[1]) on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.

Spotify Technology S.A.
Type of site
Public (Société Anonyme)
Traded as
Founded23 April 2006; 16 years ago (2006-04-23)
Headquarters
Stockholm, Sweden[1][2]
Country of originSweden
No. of locations15 offices[2]
Founder(s)
Industry
  • Audio streaming
  • Podcasting
Revenue €11.7 billion (2022)[3]
Operating income €-659 million (2022)[3]
Net income €–430 million (2022)[3]
Total assets €7.6 billion (2022)[3]
Total equity €2.4 billion (2022)[3]
Employees10,151 (December 2022)[4]
Subsidiaries
  • Spotify AB[5][1]: 43 
  • Spotify USA Inc.[1]: 43 
  • Spotify Ltd (UK)[1]: 43 
  • Several other regional subsidiaries[1]: 43 
  • Tencent Music (16.9%)
URL
  • Home Page: Spotify
  • Web Player: Web Player
RegistrationRequired
Users
  • Free: 295 million
  • Paying: 205 million
  • Total (MAU): 489 million
(December 2022)
Launched7 October 2008; 14 years ago (2008-10-07)

Spotify offers digital copyright restricted recorded audio content, including more than 100 million songs and five million podcasts, from record labels and media companies.[8] As a freemium service, 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.

Spotify is available in most of Europe, as well as Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, with a total availability in 184 markets.[9] Its user and subscriber based is largely US and Europe based, jointly accounting for around 53% of users and 67% of revenue.[10] It has no presence in mainland China where the market is dominated by QQ Music. 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.[11]

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.[12]

History

 
Daniel Ek addressing Spotify staff in 2010

Spotify was founded in 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden,[13] by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of Tradedoubler.[14][15] According to Ek, the company's title was initially misheard from a name shouted by Lorentzon. Later they thought out a portmanteau of "spot" and "identify".[16]

Early international launches

 
Former Spotify headquarters in Stockholm

In February 2010, 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.[17]

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, and limited users to ten hours of streaming each month and five plays per song.[18] Using PC streaming, you would see a similar structure to what we see today,[clarification needed] with a listener being able 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.[19]

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 grows, including access to flexible housing, better education in the programming and development fields, and stock options. Ek and Lorentzon wrote that to continue competing in a global economy, politicians needed to respond with new policies, or else thousands of Spotify jobs would be moved from Sweden to the United States.[20]

In February 2017, Spotify announced 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.[21] The company's US headquarters are located in New York City's Flatiron District.[22]

On 14 November 2018, the company announced a total of 13 new markets in the MENA region, including the creation of a new Arabic hub and several playlists.[23]

Other developments

Streaming records

Main article: List of most-streamed artists on Spotify

In October 2015, "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran became the first song to pass 500 million streams.[24] 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.[25] In April 2016, Rihanna overtook Justin Bieber to become the biggest artist on Spotify, with 31.3 million monthly active listeners.[26] In May 2016, Rihanna was overtaken by Drake with 31.85 million total streams.[27] In December 2016, Drake's just-under 36 million monthly listeners were overtaken by the Weeknd's 36.068 million.[28] Later that same month, Drake's song "One Dance" became the first song to hit one billion streams on Spotify.[29][30] 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.[31] 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.[32]

User growth

In March 2011, Spotify announced a customer base of 1 million paying subscribers across Europe,[33] and by September 2011, the number of paying subscribers had doubled to two million.[34] In August 2012, Time reported 15 million active users, four million being paying Spotify subscribers.[35] 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.[36] By March 2013, the service had 24 million active users, six million being paying subscribers,[37] which grew to 40 million users (including ten million paying) in May 2014,[38] 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,[39] 40 million paying subscribers in September 2016,[40] and 100 million total users in June 2016.[41] In April 2020, Spotify reached 133 million premium users.[42] In countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Spotify registered a fall in users in late February, but it has seen a recovery.[43] In March 2022, Spotify had 182 million premium subscribers.[44] At the end of Q2 2022, Spotify reported 188 million paying subscribers and 433 million total users.[45]

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".[46][47][48] 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. Spotify CEO Daniel 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".[49][50][51] It was announced later in April that this type of agreement would be extended to indie artists signed to the Merlin Network agency.[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.[54][55][56] Morgan Stanley is the company's slated advisor on the matter.[56]

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.[57]

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.[58] The database was thought to be evidence of an impending credential stuffing cyberattack targeting Spotify[59] as it contained the credentials of up to 350,000 compromised user accounts.[60] In response to the attack, Spotify issued a rolling reset of passwords for affected accounts in November 2020.[61]

Acquisitions and exclusivity deals

In May 2013, Spotify acquired music discovery app Tunigo.[62] In March 2014, they acquired The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company.[63][64] In June 2015, Spotify announced they 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.[65][66] In January 2016, they acquired social and messaging startups Cord Project and Soundwave,[67] 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".[68] 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 their subscriber numbers".[69]

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.[70] 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.[71] In April 2017, they acquired Mediachain, a blockchain startup that had been developing a decentralized database system for managing attribution, and other metadata for media.[72][73] 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.[74][75] In November 2017, Spotify acquired Soundtrap, an online music studio startup.[76][77]

On 12 April 2018, Spotify acquired the music licensing platform Loudr.[78] In August 2018, Spotify bought the exclusive rights to The Joe Budden Podcast and expanded the show to a twice-weekly schedule.[79] 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.[80][81][82] On 26 March 2019, Spotify announced they would acquire another podcast network, Parcast.[83][84] 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.[85] On 19 November 2019, Spotify announced the acquisition of the exclusive rights to The Last Podcast on the Left.[86]

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.[87][88] 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.[89][90]

In November 2020, Spotify announced plans to acquire Megaphone from The Slate Group for US$235 million.[91] In March 2021, Spotify acquired app developer Betty Labs and their live social audio app, Locker Room,[92] 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.[93][94] Locker Room was rebranded in June 2021 as Spotify Greenroom, and turned into a Clubhouse competitor.[95] The same month, Spotify acquired Podz, a podcast discovery startup.[96] Also the same month, Spotify bought the exclusive rights to the Call Her Daddy podcast.[97] In November 2021, Spotify acquired audiobook company Findaway, including its publishing imprint OrangeSky Audio.[98] 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.[99]

In February 2022, Spotify acquired Chartable and Podsights. Both are podcast advertising companies.[100] In 2022, Spotify Greenroom rebranded as Spotify Live.[101] In June 2022, Spotify acquired Sonantic, a synthetic voice and video developer.[102] In July 2022, Spotify acquired Heardle, a Wordle-inspired music trivia game, for an undisclosed amount.[103][104] In October 2022, Spotify acquired the Dublin-based content moderation startup, Kinzen.[105]

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.[106] 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.[107] 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.[108]

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.[109] 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.[110][111] As a result of this transaction, Spotify gained a 9% stake in TME with TME gaining a 7.5% stake in Spotify.[112]

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".[113] In April, Spotify announced a discounted entertainment bundle with video-on-demand provider Hulu, which included discounted rates for university students.[114]

In May 2020, Spotify teamed up with ESPN and Netflix to curate podcasts around their Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance,[115] and in September, Spotify signed a deal with Chernin Entertainment to produce movies and TV shows.[116]

In 2022, Spotify became the official streaming partner of FC Barcelona.[117]

In May 2022, Spotify announced a partnership with the online game platform and game creation system the Roblox Corporation, the partnership saw Spotify as the first streaming brand to have a presence within the game with the launch of "Spotify Island".[118]

Dispute with Apple

See also: Criticism of Apple Inc. § Spotify

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.[119] 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."[120]

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".[121][122]

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'".[123][124] 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.[125][126]

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.[127] 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 they 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.[128]

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 they have attempted to work with Spotify to integrate the service better with Apple's products, such as Siri and Apple Watch.[129] In 2019, under iOS 13, it became possible to play Spotify music using Siri commands.[130]

Spotify was one of the first companies to support Epic Games in their 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.[131]

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 they had reached an agreement with Kakao Entertainment, allowing their content to be available once again on the platform across the globe.[132]

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 in order to "tell a story".[133]

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.[134]

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.[135]

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 70% of its total revenue to rights holders. 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.[136]

Spotify offers an unlimited subscription package, close to the Open Music Model (OMM) estimated economic equilibrium for the recording industry.[citation needed] However, the incorporation of digital rights management (DRM) limitation[137] diverges from the OMM and competitors such as iTunes Store and Amazon Music that have dropped DRM.[138][139]

In 2013, Spotify revealed that it paid artists an average of $0.007 per stream. Music Week editor Tim Ingham commented that the figure was not as "alarming" as it appeared, writing: "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."[140] 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.[141]

Accounts and subscriptions

As of August 2022, the three Spotify subscription types are:

Type Remove ads Mobile listening Sound quality Listen offline Spotify Connect
Spotify Free No Limited
(shuffle-only mode) 		Up to 160 kbit/s Vorbis or 128 kbit/s Advanced Audio Coding for the web player No Limited
(Spotify Connect device using the new SDK)
Spotify Premium Yes Yes Up to 320 kbit/s Vorbis or 256 kbit/s AAC for the web player Yes Yes
Spotify HiFi (planned)[142] Yes Yes Compact Disc Digital Audio quality lossless Yes Yes

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.[143] In April 2017, the discount was expanded to 33 more countries.[144][145]

Spotify introduced a Family subscription in October 2014, which allows up to 5 family members to have a premium subscription.[146][147] In May 2016, the limit was changed to 6 family members, and the price was reduced.[148] The Family subscription provides access to Spotify Kids.[149]

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.[150][151]

In July 2020,[152] Spotify added another tier, Premium Duo.[153] This is aimed at couples and for $12.99 it lets up to 2 people (living at the same address) share a subscription.

In February 2021, Spotify announced their plans to introduce a HiFi subscription, to offer listening in high fidelity, lossless sound quality. The rollout for the HiFi tier is yet to be announced.[142]

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.[154] This might have been discontinued (at least in some regions) according to an email sent to a redditor.[155]

Monetization

In 2008, just after launch, the company made a loss of 31.8 million Swedish kronor (US$4.4 million).[156] In October 2010, Wired reported that Spotify was making more money for labels in Sweden than any other retailer "online or off".[157] 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.[158] Another source of income was music purchases from within the app, however this service was removed in January 2013.[159]

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.[160][161] That September, Spotify announced that it had paid a total of over $5 billion to the music industry.[162] 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.[163][164]

As of 2017, Spotify was not yet a profitable company.[165] 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).[166] 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.[167]

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".[168] In June 2011, Spotify secured $100 million of funding and planned to use this to support its US launch. The new round of funding valued the company at $1 billion.[169] A Goldman Sachs-led round of funding closed in November 2012, raising around $100 million at a $3 billion valuation.[170]

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.[171] The financing was closed in June 2015, with Spotify raising $526 million, at a value of $8.53 billion.[172] In January 2016, Spotify raised another $500 million through convertible bonds.[173]

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.[174] 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 in order to "build up a better balance sheet and work on shifting its business model to improve its margins".[175]

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.[159]

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.[176] 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".[177][178]

In September 2018, Spotify announced "Upload Beta", allowing artists to upload directly to the platform instead of going through a distributor or record label.[179] 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.[180]

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,[needs update] 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.[181]

In October 2017, Spotify launched "Rise", a program aimed at promoting emerging artists.[182][183] 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.[184][185]

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.[186] 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.[187]

Stations by Spotify

On 31 January 2018, Spotify started testing a new Pandora-styled standalone app called Stations by Spotify for Australian Android users.[188] 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.[189]

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.[190]

Platforms

Spotify
 
Screenshot
 
Screenshot of Spotify version 8.7.8.1206 on Android (June 2022), showcasing the app's Home tab.
Developer(s)Spotify Ltd.
Initial release7 October 2008 (2008-10-07)
Stable release(s) [±]
Android8.6.88.1104 / December 16, 2021; 14 months ago (2021-12-16)[191]
Android Wear8.6.88.1104 / December 16, 2021; 14 months ago (2021-12-16)
iOS8.6.84 / December 1, 2021; 14 months ago (2021-12-01)[192]
Windows1.1.89.862 / July 12, 2022; 7 months ago (2022-07-12)[193]
macOS1.1.74.631 / December 11, 2021; 14 months ago (2021-12-11)
Linux1.1.84.716 / April 27, 2022; 10 months ago (2022-04-27)[194]
Preview release(s) [±]
Android8.6.96 / December 30, 2021; 13 months ago (2021-12-30)[195]
iOS8.6.96 / December 31, 2021; 13 months ago (2021-12-31)[195]
Written inPrimarily Python, with some Java, C, and C++ components[196]
Operating system
Available in62 languages[197]
List of languages
English, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hungarian, Czech, German, Spanish, International Spanish, Finnish, French, Canadian French, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Malay, Dutch, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, Afrikaans, Amharic, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Bulgarian, Simplified Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Estonian, Filipino, Gujarati, Hindi, Icelandic, Kannada, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Norwegian, Odia, Persian, Portuguese, Eastern Punjabi, Western Punjabi, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Ukrainian, Urdu, Zulu
TypeMusic streaming, podcast player
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.spotify.com  

Spotify has client software currently available for Windows, macOS, Wear OS, Android, iOS, watchOS, iPadOS, 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).[198] Offline Music listening is possible on watchOS[199] and more recently added to google's WearOS[200] 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.[201][202]

 
Spotify Desktop Client running on Arch Linux

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, 5 million podcasts, and 4 billion playlists.[203][204][8]

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.[205] In June 2012, Soundrop became the first Spotify app to attract major funding, receiving $3 million from Spotify investor Northzone.[206][207] 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, but "would ensure the Spotify platform remained relevant and easy to develop on, as well as enabling you to build innovative and engaging music experiences".[208]

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.[209] 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.[198]

In December 2012, Spotify introduced a "Follow" tab and a "Discover" tab, along with a "Collection" section. "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.[210][211] 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".[212]

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.[213][214][215]

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. While it continued to provide users with an end-of-the-year wrap up, the playlist feature was later removed.[216][217]

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,[218][219][220] being expanded to the Android app in April 2017. This feature was known as "Behind the Lyrics".[221][222] 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 provider Musixmatch.[223]

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.[224][225][226]

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.[227][228] Also in January 2019, Spotify beta-tested its Canvas feature, where artists and/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.[229] 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.[230]

In March 2021, Spotify announced an upcoming option for higher-resolution sound, Spotify Hi-Fi.[231]

Playlists and discovery

In July 2015, Spotify launched Discover Weekly, a playlist generated weekly. Updated on Mondays, it provides users with music recommendations.[232][233] In December 2015, Quartz reported that songs in Discover Weekly playlists had been streamed 1.7 billion times,.[234]

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.[235]

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.[236][237]

The RADAR program is Spotify's global artist program, exclusively designed to help emerging artists worldwide reach the next stage in their careers and strengthen their connection to listeners.[citation needed]

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.[238]

In September 2016, Spotify introduced Daily Mix, a series of (up to six) playlists that mixes the user's favorite tracks with new, recommended songs. New users can access Daily Mix after approximately two weeks of listening to music through Spotify. Daily Mixes were only available on the Android and iOS mobile apps at launch, but the feature was later expanded to Spotify's computer app in December 2016.[citation needed]

In 2017, Spotify introduced RapCaviar, a hip-hop playlist.[239][240] Rap Caviar had 10.9 million followers by 2019, becoming one of Spotify's Top 5 playlists.[241] RapCaviar was originally curated by Tuma Basa.[242] It was relaunched by Carl Chery in 2019.[243]

In July 2018, Spotify introduced a beta feature that gives artists, labels, and teams an easy way to submit unreleased music directly to Spotify's editorial team for playlist consideration.[citation needed]

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.[244]

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's being played.[245] 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.[246]

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.[247]

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.[248]

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 they 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.[249] 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.[250][251]

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."[252][253] This shuffle feature is not available on 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.[254][255]

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.[256]

Before April 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. Adding playlists at this point also arbitrarily removed older playlists from the users' library. Spotify later removed this limit.

Technical information

Audio quality options
Desktop, mobile, and tablet Web player
Music
Standard quality options
HE-AAC v2 24 kbit/s AAC 128 kbit/s
Vorbis 96 kbit/s
Vorbis 160 kbit/s
Premium quality options
Vorbis 320 kbit/s AAC 256 kbit/s
HiFi quality options (TBA)
Compact Disc-quality lossless Unknown
Podcasts
HE-AAC v2 24 kbit/s AAC 128 kbit/s
Vorbis 96 kbit/s

Spotify is proprietary and uses digital rights management (DRM) controls.[137] 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).[257]

In April 2014, Spotify moved away from the peer-to-peer (P2P) system they 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."[258]

Originally Spotify had their own servers but in 2016 most of their infrastructure was migrated to Google Cloud.[259]

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.[260] 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.[261] In April 2021, Spotify rolled out its own voice assistant with the hands-free wake word: "Hey Spotify".[262] 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".[263]

Geographic availability

[264] The company is incorporated in Luxembourg as Spotify Technology S.A.,[265] and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices in 16 countries around the world.[266][267] Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Spotify temporarily closed its office in Russia[268] and suspended both premium and free services from the country until further notice.[269] However, the support service continues to work for Russian users.[citation needed]

 
Countries where Spotify is available
  • Suspended on 25 March 2022 until further notice.

Sponsorship

Accolades

In September 2010, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.[297][298]

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Spotify

Spotify has attracted significant criticism since its 2006 launch.[299] The primary point of criticism centres around what artists, music creators, and the media have described as "unsustainable" compensation.[300] 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 their "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.[136] Worldwide, 30,000 musicians have joined the organization UnionOfMusicians (UMAW).[301] 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.[301]

Spotify has been criticised by artists and producers including Thom Yorke and Taylor Swift, who have argued that Spotify does not fairly compensate musicians, and both withdrew their music from the service.[302][303] Their catalogues returned to the service in 2017.[304][305] While the streaming music industry in general faces the same critique about inadequate payments,[306] Spotify, being the leading service,[307] 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.[308][309][310] 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.[136] A study has shown that record labels keep a high amount of the money earned from Spotify,[311][312] 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.[313] In 2017, as part of its efforts to renegotiate licence deals for an interest in going public, Spotify announced that artists would be able to make albums temporarily exclusive to paid subscribers if the albums are part of Universal Music Group or the Merlin Network.

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.[314] This policy was revoked in June because the company deemed the original wording to be too "vague"; they stated that "Across all genres, our role is not to regulate artists. Therefore, we are moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct".[315] However, artists such as Gary Glitter and Lostprophets are still hidden from Spotify's radio stations.[316]

According to some computer science and music experts, various music communities are often ignored or overlooked by music streaming services, such as Spotify.[317][318][319][320] 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.[318] This can potentially have a negative impact on heritage styles, amongst both popular and traditional genres of New Mexico music and folk music, and possibly hindering the growth of styles such as country rap and contemporary Christian music.[319]

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.[321]

In March 2021, David Dayen argued in The American Prospect [322] that musicians were in peril due to monopolies in streaming services like Spotify. 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."[322] However, Dayen noted that such services draw revenue from advertisements, the promise of audience growth to investors, and data collection.[citation needed]

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).[323][324] On 26 January, Neil Young removed his music from Spotify after they refused to remove the podcast.[325] Other artists and podcasters, such as Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, Brené Brown, and Crosby, Stills, & Nash, also announced a boycott of Spotify.[326][327][328][329] Spotify promised to add content advisories for anything containing discussions related to COVID-19 and posted additional rules.[330]

See also

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February 27, 2023
spotify, been, suggested, that, criticism, merged, into, this, article, discuss, proposed, since, january, 2023, swedish, ˈspɔ, tːɪfaj, proprietary, swedish, audio, streaming, media, services, provider, founded, april, 2006, daniel, martin, lorentzon, largest,. It has been suggested that Criticism of Spotify be merged into this article Discuss Proposed since January 2023 Spotify ˈ s p ɒ t ɪ f aɪ Swedish ˈspɔ tːɪfaj is a proprietary Swedish 6 audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon 7 It is one of the largest music streaming service providers with over 489 million monthly active users including 205 million paying subscribers as of December 2022 4 8 Spotify is listed through a Luxembourg City domiciled holding company Spotify Technology S A 1 on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts Spotify Technology S A Type of sitePublic Societe Anonyme Traded asNYSE SPOTRussell 1000 componentFounded23 April 2006 16 years ago 2006 04 23 HeadquartersStockholm Sweden 1 2 Country of originSwedenNo of locations15 offices 2 Founder s Daniel EkMartin LorentzonIndustryAudio streamingPodcastingRevenue 11 7 billion 2022 3 Operating income 659 million 2022 3 Net income 430 million 2022 3 Total assets 7 6 billion 2022 3 Total equity 2 4 billion 2022 3 Employees10 151 December 2022 4 SubsidiariesSpotify AB 5 1 43 Spotify USA Inc 1 43 Spotify Ltd UK 1 43 Several other regional subsidiaries 1 43 Tencent Music 16 9 URLHome Page SpotifyWeb Player Web PlayerRegistrationRequiredUsersFree 295 millionPaying 205 millionTotal MAU 489 million December 2022 update Launched7 October 2008 14 years ago 2008 10 07 Spotify offers digital copyright restricted recorded audio content including more than 100 million songs and five million podcasts from record labels and media companies 8 As a freemium service 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 Spotify is available in most of Europe as well as Africa the Americas Asia and Oceania with a total availability in 184 markets 9 Its user and subscriber based is largely US and Europe based jointly accounting for around 53 of users and 67 of revenue 10 It has no presence in mainland China where the market is dominated by QQ Music 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 11 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 12 Contents 1 History 1 1 Early international launches 1 2 Other developments 1 2 1 Streaming records 1 2 2 User growth 1 2 3 Premium exclusive albums 1 2 4 Direct public offering 1 2 5 2020 hacking incident 1 2 6 Acquisitions and exclusivity deals 1 2 7 Company partnerships 1 2 8 Dispute with Apple 1 2 9 Dispute with Kakao Entertainment Corp 1 2 10 Functionality 1 2 11 NFTs 2 Business model 2 1 Accounts and subscriptions 2 2 Monetization 2 2 1 Funding 2 3 Downloads 2 4 Spotify for Artists 2 5 Industry initiatives 2 6 Stations by Spotify 3 Platforms 3 1 Features 3 1 1 Playlists and discovery 3 2 Listening limitations 3 3 Technical information 3 4 Car Thing 4 Geographic availability 5 Sponsorship 6 Accolades 7 Criticism 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External linksHistory Daniel Ek addressing Spotify staff in 2010 Spotify was founded in 2006 in Stockholm Sweden 13 by Daniel Ek former CTO of Stardoll and Martin Lorentzon co founder of Tradedoubler 14 15 According to Ek the company s title was initially misheard from a name shouted by Lorentzon Later they thought out a portmanteau of spot and identify 16 Early international launches Former Spotify headquarters in Stockholm In February 2010 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 17 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 and limited users to ten hours of streaming each month and five plays per song 18 Using PC streaming you would see a similar structure to what we see today clarification needed with a listener being able 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 19 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 grows including access to flexible housing better education in the programming and development fields and stock options Ek and Lorentzon wrote that to continue competing in a global economy politicians needed to respond with new policies or else thousands of Spotify jobs would be moved from Sweden to the United States 20 In February 2017 Spotify announced 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 21 The company s US headquarters are located in New York City s Flatiron District 22 On 14 November 2018 the company announced a total of 13 new markets in the MENA region including the creation of a new Arabic hub and several playlists 23 Other developments Streaming records Main article List of most streamed artists on Spotify In October 2015 Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran became the first song to pass 500 million streams 24 A month later Spotify announced that Lean On by Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring MO was its most streamed song of all time with over 525 million streams worldwide 25 In April 2016 Rihanna overtook Justin Bieber to become the biggest artist on Spotify with 31 3 million monthly active listeners 26 In May 2016 Rihanna was overtaken by Drake with 31 85 million total streams 27 In December 2016 Drake s just under 36 million monthly listeners were overtaken by the Weeknd s 36 068 million 28 Later that same month Drake s song One Dance became the first song to hit one billion streams on Spotify 29 30 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 31 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 32 User growth In March 2011 Spotify announced a customer base of 1 million paying subscribers across Europe 33 and by September 2011 the number of paying subscribers had doubled to two million 34 In August 2012 Time reported 15 million active users four million being paying Spotify subscribers 35 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 36 By March 2013 the service had 24 million active users six million being paying subscribers 37 which grew to 40 million users including ten million paying in May 2014 38 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 39 40 million paying subscribers in September 2016 40 and 100 million total users in June 2016 41 In April 2020 Spotify reached 133 million premium users 42 In countries affected by the COVID 19 pandemic Spotify registered a fall in users in late February but it has seen a recovery 43 In March 2022 Spotify had 182 million premium subscribers 44 At the end of Q2 2022 Spotify reported 188 million paying subscribers and 433 million total users 45 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 46 47 48 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 Spotify CEO Daniel 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 49 50 51 It was announced later in April that this type of agreement would be extended to indie artists signed to the Merlin Network agency 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 54 55 56 Morgan Stanley is the company s slated advisor on the matter 56 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 57 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 58 The database was thought to be evidence of an impending credential stuffing cyberattack targeting Spotify 59 as it contained the credentials of up to 350 000 compromised user accounts 60 In response to the attack Spotify issued a rolling reset of passwords for affected accounts in November 2020 61 Acquisitions and exclusivity deals In May 2013 Spotify acquired music discovery app Tunigo 62 In March 2014 they acquired The Echo Nest a music intelligence company 63 64 In June 2015 Spotify announced they 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 65 66 In January 2016 they acquired social and messaging startups Cord Project and Soundwave 67 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 68 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 their subscriber numbers 69 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 70 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 71 In April 2017 they acquired Mediachain a blockchain startup that had been developing a decentralized database system for managing attribution and other metadata for media 72 73 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 74 75 In November 2017 Spotify acquired Soundtrap an online music studio startup 76 77 On 12 April 2018 Spotify acquired the music licensing platform Loudr 78 In August 2018 Spotify bought the exclusive rights to The Joe Budden Podcast and expanded the show to a twice weekly schedule 79 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 80 81 82 On 26 March 2019 Spotify announced they would acquire another podcast network Parcast 83 84 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 85 On 19 November 2019 Spotify announced the acquisition of the exclusive rights to The Last Podcast on the Left 86 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 87 88 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 89 90 In November 2020 Spotify announced plans to acquire Megaphone from The Slate Group for US 235 million 91 In March 2021 Spotify acquired app developer Betty Labs and their live social audio app Locker Room 92 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 93 94 Locker Room was rebranded in June 2021 as Spotify Greenroom and turned into a Clubhouse competitor 95 The same month Spotify acquired Podz a podcast discovery startup 96 Also the same month Spotify bought the exclusive rights to the Call Her Daddy podcast 97 In November 2021 Spotify acquired audiobook company Findaway including its publishing imprint OrangeSky Audio 98 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 99 In February 2022 Spotify acquired Chartable and Podsights Both are podcast advertising companies 100 In 2022 Spotify Greenroom rebranded as Spotify Live 101 In June 2022 Spotify acquired Sonantic a synthetic voice and video developer 102 In July 2022 Spotify acquired Heardle a Wordle inspired music trivia game for an undisclosed amount 103 104 In October 2022 Spotify acquired the Dublin based content moderation startup Kinzen 105 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 106 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 107 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 108 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 109 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 110 111 As a result of this transaction Spotify gained a 9 stake in TME with TME gaining a 7 5 stake in Spotify 112 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 113 In April Spotify announced a discounted entertainment bundle with video on demand provider Hulu which included discounted rates for university students 114 In May 2020 Spotify teamed up with ESPN and Netflix to curate podcasts around their Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance 115 and in September Spotify signed a deal with Chernin Entertainment to produce movies and TV shows 116 In 2022 Spotify became the official streaming partner of FC Barcelona 117 In May 2022 Spotify announced a partnership with the online game platform and game creation system the Roblox Corporation the partnership saw Spotify as the first streaming brand to have a presence within the game with the launch of Spotify Island 118 Dispute with Apple See also Criticism of Apple Inc Spotify 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 119 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 120 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 121 122 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 123 124 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 125 126 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 127 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 they 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 128 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 they have attempted to work with Spotify to integrate the service better with Apple s products such as Siri and Apple Watch 129 In 2019 under iOS 13 it became possible to play Spotify music using Siri commands 130 Spotify was one of the first companies to support Epic Games in their 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 131 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 they had reached an agreement with Kakao Entertainment allowing their content to be available once again on the platform across the globe 132 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 in order to tell a story 133 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 134 Business modelSpotify 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 135 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 70 of its total revenue to rights holders 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 136 Spotify offers an unlimited subscription package close to the Open Music Model OMM estimated economic equilibrium for the recording industry citation needed However the incorporation of digital rights management DRM limitation 137 diverges from the OMM and competitors such as iTunes Store and Amazon Music that have dropped DRM 138 139 In 2013 Spotify revealed that it paid artists an average of 0 007 per stream Music Week editor Tim Ingham commented that the figure was not as alarming as it appeared writing 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 140 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 141 Accounts and subscriptions As of August 2022 the three Spotify subscription types are Type Remove ads Mobile listening Sound quality Listen offline Spotify ConnectSpotify Free No Limited shuffle only mode Up to 160 kbit s Vorbis or 128 kbit s Advanced Audio Coding for the web player No Limited Spotify Connect device using the new SDK Spotify Premium Yes Yes Up to 320 kbit s Vorbis or 256 kbit s AAC for the web player Yes YesSpotify HiFi planned 142 Yes Yes Compact Disc Digital Audio quality lossless Yes YesNone 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 143 In April 2017 the discount was expanded to 33 more countries 144 145 Spotify introduced a Family subscription in October 2014 which allows up to 5 family members to have a premium subscription 146 147 In May 2016 the limit was changed to 6 family members and the price was reduced 148 The Family subscription provides access to Spotify Kids 149 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 150 151 In July 2020 152 Spotify added another tier Premium Duo 153 This is aimed at couples and for 12 99 it lets up to 2 people living at the same address share a subscription In February 2021 Spotify announced their plans to introduce a HiFi subscription to offer listening in high fidelity lossless sound quality The rollout for the HiFi tier is yet to be announced 142 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 154 This might have been discontinued at least in some regions according to an email sent to a redditor 155 Monetization In 2008 just after launch the company made a loss of 31 8 million Swedish kronor US 4 4 million 156 In October 2010 Wired reported that Spotify was making more money for labels in Sweden than any other retailer online or off 157 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 158 Another source of income was music purchases from within the app however this service was removed in January 2013 159 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 160 161 That September Spotify announced that it had paid a total of over 5 billion to the music industry 162 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 163 164 As of 2017 update Spotify was not yet a profitable company 165 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 166 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 167 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 168 In June 2011 Spotify secured 100 million of funding and planned to use this to support its US launch The new round of funding valued the company at 1 billion 169 A Goldman Sachs led round of funding closed in November 2012 raising around 100 million at a 3 billion valuation 170 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 171 The financing was closed in June 2015 with Spotify raising 526 million at a value of 8 53 billion 172 In January 2016 Spotify raised another 500 million through convertible bonds 173 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 174 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 in order to build up a better balance sheet and work on shifting its business model to improve its margins 175 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 159 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 176 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 177 178 In September 2018 Spotify announced Upload Beta allowing artists to upload directly to the platform instead of going through a distributor or record label 179 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 180 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 needs update 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 181 In October 2017 Spotify launched Rise a program aimed at promoting emerging artists 182 183 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 184 185 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 186 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 187 Stations by Spotify On 31 January 2018 Spotify started testing a new Pandora styled standalone app called Stations by Spotify for Australian Android users 188 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 189 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 190 PlatformsSpotify Screenshot Screenshot of Spotify version 8 7 8 1206 on Android June 2022 showcasing the app s Home tab Developer s Spotify Ltd Initial release7 October 2008 2008 10 07 Stable release s Android8 6 88 1104 December 16 2021 14 months ago 2021 12 16 191 Android Wear8 6 88 1104 December 16 2021 14 months ago 2021 12 16 iOS8 6 84 December 1 2021 14 months ago 2021 12 01 192 Windows1 1 89 862 July 12 2022 7 months ago 2022 07 12 193 macOS1 1 74 631 December 11 2021 14 months ago 2021 12 11 Linux1 1 84 716 April 27 2022 10 months ago 2022 04 27 194 Preview release s Android8 6 96 December 30 2021 13 months ago 2021 12 30 195 iOS8 6 96 December 31 2021 13 months ago 2021 12 31 195 Written inPrimarily Python with some Java C and C components 196 Operating systemAndroid Wear OS watchOS iOS macOS Windows Linux PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X SAvailable in62 languages 197 List of languagesEnglish Arabic Chinese Hebrew Hungarian Czech German Spanish International Spanish Finnish French Canadian French Greek Indonesian Italian Japanese Malay Dutch Polish Brazilian Portuguese Russian Swedish Thai Turkish Vietnamese Afrikaans Amharic Azerbaijani Bengali Bhojpuri Bulgarian Simplified Chinese Croatian Danish Estonian Filipino Gujarati Hindi Icelandic Kannada Latvian Lithuanian Malayalam Marathi Nepali Norwegian Odia Persian Portuguese Eastern Punjabi Western Punjabi Romanian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Swahili Tamil Telugu Ukrainian Urdu ZuluTypeMusic streaming podcast playerLicenseProprietaryWebsitewww wbr spotify wbr com Spotify has client software currently available for Windows macOS Wear OS Android iOS watchOS iPadOS 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 198 Offline Music listening is possible on watchOS 199 and more recently added to google s WearOS 200 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 201 202 Spotify Desktop Client running on Arch Linux 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 5 million podcasts and 4 billion playlists 203 204 8 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 205 In June 2012 Soundrop became the first Spotify app to attract major funding receiving 3 million from Spotify investor Northzone 206 207 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 but would ensure the Spotify platform remained relevant and easy to develop on as well as enabling you to build innovative and engaging music experiences 208 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 209 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 198 In December 2012 Spotify introduced a Follow tab and a Discover tab along with a Collection section 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 210 211 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 212 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 213 214 215 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 While it continued to provide users with an end of the year wrap up the playlist feature was later removed 216 217 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 218 219 220 being expanded to the Android app in April 2017 This feature was known as Behind the Lyrics 221 222 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 provider Musixmatch 223 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 224 225 226 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 227 228 Also in January 2019 Spotify beta tested its Canvas feature where artists and 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 229 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 230 In March 2021 Spotify announced an upcoming option for higher resolution sound Spotify Hi Fi 231 Playlists and discovery In July 2015 Spotify launched Discover Weekly a playlist generated weekly Updated on Mondays it provides users with music recommendations 232 233 In December 2015 Quartz reported that songs in Discover Weekly playlists had been streamed 1 7 billion times 234 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 235 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 236 237 The RADAR program is Spotify s global artist program exclusively designed to help emerging artists worldwide reach the next stage in their careers and strengthen their connection to listeners citation needed 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 238 In September 2016 Spotify introduced Daily Mix a series of up to six playlists that mixes the user s favorite tracks with new recommended songs New users can access Daily Mix after approximately two weeks of listening to music through Spotify Daily Mixes were only available on the Android and iOS mobile apps at launch but the feature was later expanded to Spotify s computer app in December 2016 citation needed In 2017 Spotify introduced RapCaviar a hip hop playlist 239 240 Rap Caviar had 10 9 million followers by 2019 becoming one of Spotify s Top 5 playlists 241 RapCaviar was originally curated by Tuma Basa 242 It was relaunched by Carl Chery in 2019 243 In July 2018 Spotify introduced a beta feature that gives artists labels and teams an easy way to submit unreleased music directly to Spotify s editorial team for playlist consideration citation needed 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 244 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 s being played 245 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 246 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 247 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 248 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 they 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 249 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 250 251 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 252 253 This shuffle feature is not available on 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 254 255 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 256 Before April 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 Adding playlists at this point also arbitrarily removed older playlists from the users library Spotify later removed this limit Technical information Audio quality options Desktop mobile and tablet Web playerMusicStandard quality optionsHE AAC v2 24 kbit s AAC 128 kbit sVorbis 96 kbit sVorbis 160 kbit sPremium quality optionsVorbis 320 kbit s AAC 256 kbit sHiFi quality options TBA Compact Disc quality lossless UnknownPodcastsHE AAC v2 24 kbit s AAC 128 kbit sVorbis 96 kbit sSpotify is proprietary and uses digital rights management DRM controls 137 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 257 In April 2014 Spotify moved away from the peer to peer P2P system they 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 258 Originally Spotify had their own servers but in 2016 most of their infrastructure was migrated to Google Cloud 259 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 260 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 261 In April 2021 Spotify rolled out its own voice assistant with the hands free wake word Hey Spotify 262 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 263 Geographic availability 264 The company is incorporated in Luxembourg as Spotify Technology S A 265 and is headquartered in Stockholm Sweden with offices in 16 countries around the world 266 267 Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Spotify temporarily closed its office in Russia 268 and suspended both premium and free services from the country until further notice 269 However the support service continues to work for Russian users citation needed Countries where Spotify is available History of expansionDate Countries Regions Reference s 7 October 2008 Sweden Finland France Norway Spain 270 10 February 2009 United Kingdom18 May 2010 Netherlands14 July 2011 United States 271 12 October 2011 Denmark 272 273 15 November 2011 Austria16 November 2011 Belgium Switzerland13 March 2012 Germany 274 22 May 2012 Australia New Zealand 275 276 13 November 2012 Andorra Ireland Liechtenstein Luxembourg Monaco 277 278 279 12 February 2013 Italy Poland Portugal16 April 2013 Estonia Hong Kong Iceland Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Singapore 280 24 September 2013 Argentina Greece Taiwan Turkey 281 12 December 2013 Bolivia Bulgaria Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Hungary Malta Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Slovakia Uruguay 282 8 April 2014 Philippines28 May 2014 Brazil30 September 2014 Canada30 March 2016 Indonesia 283 29 September 2016 Japan22 August 2017 Thailand 284 285 13 March 2018 Israel Romania South Africa Vietnam13 November 2018 Algeria Bahrain Egypt Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Morocco Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Tunisia United Arab Emirates 286 287 26 February 2019 India 288 14 July 2020 Albania Belarus Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Kazakhstan Kosovo Moldova Montenegro North Macedonia Russia Serbia Slovenia Ukraine 289 1 February 2021 South Korea 290 23 February 2021 Bangladesh Ghana Kenya Nigeria Pakistan Sri Lanka Tanzania Uganda 291 292 24 February 2021 Antigua and Barbuda Armenia Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Bhutan Botswana Burkina Faso Cabo Verde Curacao Dominica East Timor Fiji Gambia Georgia Grenada Guinea Bissau Guyana Haiti Jamaica Kiribati Lesotho Liberia Malawi Maldives Mali Marshall Islands Micronesia Namibia Nauru Niger Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Solomon Islands St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tuvalu Vanuatu 292 25 February 2021 Azerbaijan Brunei Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Chad Comoros Equatorial Guinea Eswatini Gabon Guinea Kyrgyzstan Laos Macau Mauritania Mongolia Nepal Rwanda Togo Uzbekistan Zimbabwe 292 16 March 2021 Angola Benin Djibouti Ivory Coast Madagascar Mauritius Mozambique Zambia 292 29 September 2021 Anguilla Aruba Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands French Guiana Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Saba Saint Barthelemy Saint Martin Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten Turks and Caicos Islands 293 16 November 2021 Democratic Republic of the Congo Iraq Libya Republic of the Congo Tajikistan Venezuela 294 22 December 2022 Ethiopia 295 Suspended on 25 March 2022 until further notice Sponsorship Barcelona 296 Barcelona FemeniAccoladesIn September 2010 the World Economic Forum WEF announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011 297 298 CriticismMain article Criticism of Spotify Spotify has attracted significant criticism since its 2006 launch 299 The primary point of criticism centres around what artists music creators and the media have described as unsustainable compensation 300 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 their 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 136 Worldwide 30 000 musicians have joined the organization UnionOfMusicians UMAW 301 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 301 Spotify has been criticised by artists and producers including Thom Yorke and Taylor Swift who have argued that Spotify does not fairly compensate musicians and both withdrew their music from the service 302 303 Their catalogues returned to the service in 2017 304 305 While the streaming music industry in general faces the same critique about inadequate payments 306 Spotify being the leading service 307 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 308 309 310 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 136 A study has shown that record labels keep a high amount of the money earned from Spotify 311 312 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 313 In 2017 as part of its efforts to renegotiate licence deals for an interest in going public Spotify announced that artists would be able to make albums temporarily exclusive to paid subscribers if the albums are part of Universal Music Group or the Merlin Network In May 2018 Spotify attracted criticism for its Hate Content amp 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 314 This policy was revoked in June because the company deemed the original wording to be too vague they stated that Across all genres our role is not to regulate artists Therefore we are moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct 315 However artists such as Gary Glitter and Lostprophets are still hidden from Spotify s radio stations 316 According to some computer science and music experts various music communities are often ignored or overlooked by music streaming services such as Spotify 317 318 319 320 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 318 This can potentially have a negative impact on heritage styles amongst both popular and traditional genres of New Mexico music and folk music and possibly hindering the growth of styles such as country rap and contemporary Christian music 319 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 321 In March 2021 David Dayen argued in The American Prospect 322 that musicians were in peril due to monopolies in streaming services like Spotify 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 322 However Dayen noted that such services draw revenue from advertisements the promise of audience growth to investors and data collection citation needed 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 323 324 On 26 January Neil Young removed his music from Spotify after they refused to remove the podcast 325 Other artists and podcasters such as Joni Mitchell Nils Lofgren Brene Brown and Crosby Stills amp Nash also announced a boycott of Spotify 326 327 328 329 Spotify promised to add content advisories for anything containing discussions related to COVID 19 and posted additional rules 330 See alsoComparison of music streaming services List of podcast clients Tech companies in the New York metropolitan area List of most streamed songs on Spotify List of most streamed artists on SpotifyReferences a b c d e f 20 F 20 F Retrieved 13 March 2021 a b About us Spotify Retrieved 29 June 2021 a b c d e Form 20 F PDF Spotify 2 February 2023 Retrieved 13 February 2023 a b Spotify Technology S A Q3 2022 update U S Securities and Exchange Commission 26 October 2022 Spotify AB Legal Entity Identifier Retrieved 10 March 2021 Contact Spotify Retrieved 20 February 2022 Spotify UK revenues surge to almost 190m as mobile subscriptions take off The Guardian 14 October 2016 Retrieved 6 August 2021 a b c Company Info Spotify For the Record 2 February 2022 Retrieved 2 February 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link About Spotify Spotify Retrieved 10 January 2022 Spotify Q3 2022 investor presentation PDF Retrieved 7 January 2023 Spotify Music Roku Channel Store Roku Retrieved 12 November 2018 Sehgal Kabir 26 January 2018 Spotify and Apple Music should become record labels so musicians can make a fair living CNBC Retrieved 21 November 2018 The story of Spotify Sweden s controversial king of music streaming The Local Sweden 2 March 2018 Retrieved 31 May 2020 a b Parsons Jeff 3 April 2018 History of Spotify how the Swedish streaming company changed the music industry mirror Retrieved 31 May 2020 Huddleston Tom Jr 4 April 2018 How Spotify s college dropout founder became a self made millionaire at 23 and a billionaire at 35 CNBC Retrieved 31 May 2020 Bertoni Steven Spotify s Daniel Ek The Most Important Man In Music Forbes Retrieved 31 May 2020 Spotify reintroduces waiting list nudges you to paying www theregister com Retrieved 31 May 2020 D Orazio Dante 6 January 2012 Spotify early adopters will soon lose unlimited listening on free accounts The Verge Retrieved 31 May 2020 Report Post Staff 29 March 2012 Spotify to continue to let US users stream music for free New York Post Retrieved 31 May 2020 Sheffield Hazel 15 April 2016 Spotify s threats to leave Sweden spur startup protest in Stockholm The Independent Archived from the original on 24 May 2022 Retrieved 11 December 2017 Spotify expands with World Trade Center move Agence France Presse via ABS CBN 15 February 2017 Retrieved 15 February 2017 Loudenback Tanza 25 July 2016 Step inside Spotify s New York City office where you ll find an airy roof deck cold brew coffee and a secret recording studio Business Insider Retrieved 19 February 2017 Spotify expands to Iraq and Libya Arab News 17 November 2021 Weiner Natalie 12 October 2015 Ed Sheeran s Thinking Out Loud Becomes First Song to Hit 500 Million Spotify Streams Billboard Retrieved 13 November 2016 Leaning power Spotify names its most streamed track of all time The Guardian 12 November 2015 Retrieved 13 November 2016 Ingham Tim 7 April 2016 The biggest artist on Spotify is a shareholder in Tidal Music Business Worldwide Retrieved 13 November 2016 Jones Rhian 18 May 2016 Drake is Spotify s most popular artist in history and right now Music Business Worldwide Retrieved 19 December 2016 Ingham Tim 1 December 2016 Drake finally loses his Spotify crown to record breaking The Weeknd Music Business Worldwide Retrieved 19 December 2016 McIntyre Hugh 16 December 2016 Drake s One Dance Is The First Song To Hit 1 Billion Plays On Spotify Forbes Retrieved 19 December 2016 Kaufman Gil 16 December 2016 Drake s One Dance Is First Song to Reach 1 Billion Plays on Spotify Billboard Retrieved 19 December 2016 Taylor Swift sets records for Spotify streams and platforms YouTube views The Associated Press 26 August 2017 Retrieved 7 September 2017 XXXTentacion Breaks Taylor Swift s Single Day Streaming Record on Spotify Billboard Retrieved 14 January 2020 Spotify hits milestone with 1 million subscribers BBC News BBC 8 March 2011 Retrieved 7 November 2016 Van Grove Jennifer 21 September 2011 Spotify Surpasses 2 Million Paying Subscribers Mashable Retrieved 7 November 2016 Sanburn Josh 16 August 2012 Spotify is Growing But Why Isn t It Growing Faster Time Retrieved 7 November 2016 Weber Harrison 6 December 2012 Spotify announces 5M paid subscribers globally 1M paid in US 20M total active users 1B playlists The Next Web Retrieved 7 November 2016 Sloan Paul 29 May 2014 Spotify Growing like mad yet so far to go CNET CBS Interactive Retrieved 7 November 2016 Brustein Joshua 22 May 2014 Spotify Hits 10 Million Paid Users Now Can It Make Money Bloomberg L P Retrieved 7 November 2016 Singleton Micah 21 March 2016 Spotify hits 30 million subscribers The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 7 November 2016 Kahn Jordan 14 September 2016 Spotify hits 40 million paid subscriber milestone outpacing Apple Music s growth 9to5Mac Retrieved 7 November 2016 Murgia Madhumita 20 June 2016 Spotify crosses 100 m users The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on 10 January 2022 Retrieved 7 November 2016 Spangler Todd 29 April 2020 Spotify Gains 6 Million Paid Subscribers in Q1 as COVID 19 Disrupts Listening Patterns Variety Retrieved 31 May 2020 Spotify s subscribers usage surge amid coronavirus outbreak CNBC 29 April 2020 Retrieved 30 April 2020 Spotify Q1 2022 financials reveal 182m subscribers and 422m active users Music Ally Retrieved 27 July 2022 Porter Jon 27 July 2022 Spotify s subscribers rise to 188M amid podcasting setbacks The Verge Retrieved 27 July 2022 Statt Nick Singleton Micah 16 March 2017 Spotify will restrict some albums to its paid tier The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 17 March 2017 Wilhelm Parker 16 March 2017 Spotify may soon require a Premium account to listen to certain albums TechRadar Retrieved 17 March 2017 Summers Nick 16 March 2017 Spotify might delay album releases for free users Engadget AOL Retrieved 17 March 2017 Singleton Micah 4 April 2017 Spotify Premium users will get some albums two weeks before free users The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 5 April 2017 Titcomb James 4 April 2017 Spotify to restrict albums to paying subscribers for first time The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on 10 January 2022 Retrieved 5 April 2017 Hern Alex 4 April 2017 Spotify to host top stars albums for premium subscribers only The Guardian Retrieved 5 April 2017 Schneider Marc 20 April 2017 Following Universal Deal Spotify Locks Down Indies in Long Term Licensing Pact With Merlin Billboard Retrieved 20 April 2017 Ingraham Nathan 20 April 2017 Spotify lets thousands of indie labels limit free streaming Engadget AOL Retrieved 20 April 2017 Is Spotify really worth 23bn BBC News 1 March 2018 Retrieved 1 March 2018 Spotify files to go public as it discloses subscriber growth and heavy losses The Verge Retrieved 1 March 2018 a b Castillo Michelle 28 February 2018 Spotify files to go public lost 1 5 billion last year CNBC Retrieved 1 March 2018 Salinas Sara 3 April 2018 Spotify loses some of its initial heat as it drops from its opening price of 165 90 CNBC Retrieved 3 April 2018 Report Spotify Targeted in Potential Fraud Scheme vpnMentor 24 November 2020 Moore Mike 24 November 2020 Thousands of Spotify accounts hacked here s what you need to know TechRadar Owaida Amer 24 November 2020 Up to 350 000 Spotify accounts hacked in credential stuffing attacks WeLiveSecurity Woodard Nick 26 November 2020 300 000 Spotify Accounts Reportedly Hacked ScreenRant Spotify Acquires Music Discovery App Tunigo A Spotify Powered Songza Competitor 3 May 2013 Etherington Darrell 6 March 2014 Spotify Acquires The Echo Nest Gaining Control Of The Music DNA Company That Powers Its Rivals TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 13 November 2016 Turns Out Spotify Acquired The Echo Nest For Just 50M 10 May 2015 Constine Josh 24 June 2015 Spotify Buys Beats Analytics Provider Seed Scientific TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 11 December 2016 Vanian Jonathan 24 June 2015 Why Spotify just bought a data science startup Fortune Retrieved 11 December 2016 Spotify Buys Cord Project And Soundwave To Expand Messaging And Social Features 20 January 2016 Goldman Joshua 27 April 2016 Spotify snaps up photo video aggregator for concertgoers CNET CBS Interactive Retrieved 4 February 2017 Spotify acquires Preact to fuel its subscription business Techcrunch 2 November 2016 Retrieved 15 September 2020 Perez Sarah 7 March 2017 Spotify acquires audio detection startup Sonalytic TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 15 March 2017 Ingham Tim 27 March 2017 Spotify acquires MightyTV Can its founder fix Daniel Ek s advertising woes Music Business Worldwide Retrieved 5 May 2017 Perez Sarah 26 April 2017 Spotify acquires blockchain startup Mediachain to solve music s attribution problem TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 27 April 2017 LeFebvre Rob 26 April 2017 Spotify s latest move shows it s trying to get royalties right Engadget AOL Retrieved 27 April 2017 Russell Jon 18 May 2017 Spotify buys AI startup Niland to develop its music personalization and recommendations TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 20 May 2017 Novet Jordan 18 May 2017 Spotify just bought an AI startup to help it stay ahead of Apple Music CNBC NBCUniversal News Group Retrieved 20 May 2017 Perez Sarah Lunden Ingrid 17 November 2017 Spotify acquires online music studio Soundtrap as it goes after creators TechCrunch Oath Inc Retrieved 7 December 2017 Krishna Swapna 17 November 2017 Spotify acquires Soundtrap an online music recording studio Engadget Oath Inc Retrieved 7 December 2017 Perez Sarah 12 April 2018 Spotify acquires music licensing platform Loudr techcrunch com Retrieved 13 April 2018 The Joe Budden Podcast Lands Exclusive Partnership with Spotify Spotify Newsroom 22 August 2018 Archived from the original on 4 June 2019 Retrieved 29 June 2019 Kafka Peter 6 February 2019 Spotify has bought two podcast startups and it wants to buy more Recode Retrieved 7 February 2019 Warren Tom 6 February 2019 Spotify gets serious about podcasts with two acquisitions The Verge Retrieved 7 February 2019 Russell Jon 6 February 2019 Spotify buys Gimlet and Anchor in podcast push earmarks 500M for more deals TechCrunch Retrieved 6 February 2019 Spotify acquires another podcast network to keep building its original show catalog The Verge 26 March 2019 Spotify acquires true crime studio Parcast to expand its original podcast content TechCrunch 26 March 2019 Retrieved 2 January 2020 Spotify acquires SoundBetter a music production marketplace for an undisclosed sum TechCrunch 12 September 2019 Retrieved 12 September 2019 Last Podcast on the Left Moving Exclusively to Spotify The Hollywood Reporter 19 November 2019 Retrieved 20 November 2019 Robertson Katie Scheiber Noam 5 February 2020 Spotify Is Buying The Ringer The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 5 February 2020 Retrieved 5 February 2020 Spotify is buying The Ringer to boost its sports podcast content TechCrunch 5 February 2020 Retrieved 5 February 2020 Spangler Todd 19 May 2020 Joe Rogan Will Bring His Podcast Exclusively to Spotify Variety Archived from the original on 19 May 2020 Retrieved 19 May 2020 Flegenheimer Matt 1 July 2021 Joe Rogan Is Too Big to Cancel The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 1 July 2021 Retrieved 29 January 2022 Carman Ashley 10 November 2020 Spotify is acquiring podcast hosting company Megaphone for 235 million The Verge Retrieved 10 November 2020 Fischer Sara 31 March 2021 Spotify enters live social audio with acquisition of Locker Room Axios Retrieved 5 April 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Spangler Todd 12 May 2021 Dax Shepard Is Moving His Podcast Exclusively to Spotify This Summer Variety ArmchairExpPod Instagram Archived from the original on 25 December 2021 Retrieved 14 May 2021 Spotify launches its live audio app and Clubhouse rival Spotify Greenroom 16 June 2021 Spotify acquires Podz a podcast discovery platform 17 June 2021 Spangler Todd 15 June 2021 Spotify Clinches 60M Plus Deal With Alex Cooper for Call Her Daddy Podcast Yanking It Away From Barstool Variety Archived from the original on 18 June 2021 Retrieved 18 June 2021 Spotify Acquires Audiobook Company Findaway Android Headlines 12 November 2021 Retrieved 21 December 2021 Spotify acquires podcast tech company Whooshkaa which turns radio broadcasts into on demand audio 16 December 2021 Carman Ashley 16 February 2022 Spotify is acquiring two major podcast tech platforms The Verge Retrieved 22 March 2022 Spotify rebranding its live social audio app Ad Age 23 March 2022 Retrieved 23 March 2022 Spotify Acquires Synthetic Voice Startup Sonantic 13 June 2022 Spotify acquired Heardle the Wordle like music game TechCrunch 12 July 2022 Retrieved 15 July 2022 Shapiro Ariel 12 July 2022 Spotify acquires music trivia game Heardle The Verge Retrieved 15 July 2022 Spotify acquires Dublin based content moderation startup Kinzen Music Business Worldwide 6 October 2022 Retrieved 6 October 2022 Lempel Eric 30 March 2015 Spotify Launches on PlayStation Music Today Sony Retrieved 13 November 2016 Rossignol Derrick 13 March 2017 Spotify lands 2 Dope Queens and other hit WNYC podcasts Engadget AOL Retrieved 15 March 2017 Nieva Richard 14 March 2017 Spotify gives you driving directions through Waze CNET CBS Interactive Retrieved 15 March 2017 Warren Tom 2 October 2017 Microsoft retires Groove Music service partners with Spotify The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 7 December 2017 Russell Jon 8 December 2017 Spotify and Tencent agree to swap stakes in their music businesses TechCrunch Oath Inc Retrieved 8 December 2017 Sawers Paul 8 December 2017 Spotify and China s Tencent invest in each other as part of strategic collaboration VentureBeat Retrieved 8 December 2017 Tencent Music Spotify s strategic partner in China is valued at over 12B TechCrunch techcrunch com March 2018 Retrieved 3 June 2018 Farokhmanesh Megan 1 February 2018 Please tell me Spotify s new partnership with Discord will fix its bad gamer playlists The Verge Retrieved 5 February 2020 Perez Sarah 11 April 2018 Spotify and Hulu launch a discounted entertainment bundle for 12 99 per month TechCrunch Retrieved 11 April 2018 Carman Ashley 1 May 2020 Netflix and ESPN team up with Spotify to curate podcasts around their Michael Jordan documentary The Verge Retrieved 3 May 2020 Spotify Strikes First Look Deal To Adapt Podcasts As Movies And TV Shows Movies Retrieved 25 September 2020 CohenMarch 15 David 2022 Spotify to Become Main Partner Official Audio Streaming Partner of FC Barcelona Retrieved 23 March 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Spotify becomes first music streamer to launch on Roblox Tech Crunch 3 May 2022 Retrieved 3 May 2022 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint url status link Welch Chris 8 July 2015 Spotify urges iPhone customers to stop paying through Apple s App Store The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 11 December 2017 Kafka Peter 30 June 2016 Spotify says Apple won t approve a new version of its app because it doesn t want competition for Apple Music Recode Retrieved 22 January 2017 Paczkowski John 1 July 2016 Apple Slams Spotify For Asking For Preferential Treatment BuzzFeed Archived from the original on 1 July 2016 Retrieved 11 December 2017 Raymundo Oscar 1 July 2016 Apple slams Spotify for criticizing the App Store as anti competitive Macworld International Data Group Retrieved 11 December 2017 Campbell Mikey 5 May 2017 Spotify others file EU complaint over Apple and Google app store practices AppleInsider Retrieved 6 May 2017 Miller Chance 6 May 2017 Spotify again accuses Apple of abusing its size amp acting as a gatekeeper 9to5Mac Retrieved 6 May 2017 Fioretti Julia 10 May 2017 EU to tackle complaints over tech companies trading practices Reuters Thomson Reuters Retrieved 10 May 2017 Lovejoy Ben 10 May 2017 EU planning a new law addressing unfair contractual clauses following Spotify s complaint against Apple 9to5Mac Retrieved 10 May 2017 Spotify officially releases the first version of its Apple Watch app Ars Technica Retrieved 14 November 2018 Rossignol Joe Spotify on Apple s Response to App Store Dispute Every Monopolist Will Suggest They Have Done Nothing Wrong www macrumors com Retrieved 19 March 2019 Addressing Spotify s Claims Apple Newsroom Retrieved 20 November 2019 Meek Andy 7 October 2019 Apple just finally added Spotify integration to Siri in iOS 13 BGR Retrieved 8 October 2019 Amadeo Ron 24 September 2020 Epic Spotify and others take on Apple with Coalition for App Fairness Ars Technica Retrieved 26 September 2020 Spotify and K Pop Label Kakao Settle Licensing Dispute Music Returning to Platform 10 March 2021 Spotify hides shuffle button after Adele says albums should tell a story The Guardian 21 November 2021 Retrieved 19 April 2022 Exclusive Spotify tests letting artists promote NFTs on their profiles Music Ally Retrieved 17 May 2022 Spotify Premium Spotify Retrieved 14 February 2022 a b c How is Spotify contributing to the music business Spotify Archived from the original on 3 November 2014 Retrieved 7 November 2016 a b Orlowski Andrew 31 August 2009 Spotify DRM and the celestial jukebox The Register Situation Publishing Retrieved 8 November 2016 Johnson Bobbie 6 January 2009 Apple drops DRM copy protection from millions of iTunes songs The Guardian Retrieved 28 May 2017 Reisinger Don 4 January 2008 Warner Music Group drops DRM joins Amazon TechRadar Retrieved 28 May 2017 Spotify reveals artists earn 0 007 per stream BBC News BBC 4 December 2013 Retrieved 22 January 2017 Ovide Shira 22 March 2021 Streaming Saved Music Artists Hate It The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 28 December 2021 Retrieved 26 March 2021 a b Spotify HiFi subscription to launch in select markets later this year Music Business Worldwide 22 February 2021 Retrieved 22 February 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Hernandez Brian Anthony 25 March 2014 Spotify Slashes Subscription Prices for College Students Mashable Retrieved 2 June 2017 Dalton Andrew 19 April 2017 Spotify s half price plan for students comes to 33 more countries Engadget Oath Inc Retrieved 19 April 2017 Lancaster Luke 19 April 2017 Students can now pick up Spotify Premium for half price CNET CBS Interactive Retrieved 19 April 2017 Warren Tom 20 October 2014 Spotify Family lets you share a subscription from 14 99 per month The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 2 June 2017 O Hear Steve 20 October 2014 Spotify Introduces Family Plan Starting At 14 99 Per Month For Two Members TechCrunch Oath Inc Retrieved 2 June 2017 Dillet Romain 23 May 2016 Spotify family plan is now cheaper 14 99 for up to 6 people TechCrunch Oath Inc Retrieved 2 June 2017 Johnson Dave 24 November 2021 How to sign up for Spotify s Family plan the streaming service s membership for up to 6 people Business Insider Retrieved 1 December 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Heater Brian 7 November 2018 Spotify Connect speakers will soon work with its free tier TechCrunch Oath Inc Retrieved 10 November 2018 Sawers Paul 7 November 2018 Spotify Connect for speakers opens to free users via a new SDK Venturebeat Retrieved 10 November 2018 Guinness Harry What Is Spotify Duo and Is It Right for You How To Geek Archived from the original on 6 July 2022 Retrieved 6 July 2022 Spotify Premium Duo Spotify Archived from the original on 6 July 2022 Retrieved 6 July 2022 Porter Jon 3 August 2021 Spotify is testing a less restrictive ad supported tier costing 0 99 a month The Verge Retrieved 3 August 2021 Spotify is ending its Spotify Plus service I hope that it just becomes the default free service now otherwise I m really going to miss on demand music streaming for 3 a month Reddit 9 February 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Nylander Johan 17 August 2009 Spotify doubled its loss last year The Swedish Wire Archived from the original on 3 March 2016 Retrieved 7 November 2016 Geere Duncan 29 October 2010 Spotify now top tier music revenue source in Sweden Wired Archived from the original on 30 October 2010 Retrieved 22 January 2017 Eldon Eric 10 November 2012 Spotify Is Having A Good 2012 Revenues Could Reach 500M As It Expands The Digital Music Market TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 22 January 2017 a b Brian Matt 4 January 2013 Spotify is no longer offering new music download purchases to its users The Next Web Retrieved 22 January 2017 Swant Marty 26 May 2016 Spotify Will Now Let Brands Sponsor the Most Popular Playlists Adweek Beringer Capital Retrieved 20 June 2017 Morrison Maureen 26 May 2016 Spotify Opens Its Popular Playlists to Sponsors Advertising Age Retrieved 20 June 2017 Ingham Tim 29 September 2016 Spotify has already paid the music industry over 1 2bn this year Music Business Worldwide Retrieved 28 May 2017 Kafka Peter 15 June 2017 Spotify has guaranteed to pay big music labels billions over the next two years Recode Vox Media Retrieved 22 June 2017 Turner Giles Shaw Lucas 15 June 2017 Spotify s Loss More Than Doubles Even as User Growth Surges Bloomberg Technology Bloomberg L P Retrieved 22 June 2017 Plummer Robert 12 February 2017 The clock is ticking for Spotify BBC News BBC Retrieved 12 February 2017 Spotify Usage and Revenue Statistics 2020 Business of Apps 20 December 2018 Retrieved 14 May 2020 Steele Anne 29 July 2020 Spotify Loss Deepens Despite Subscriber Podcast Growth The Wall Street Journal Retrieved 29 July 2020 Bradshaw Tim Menn Joseph 1 March 2010 Spotify MOG battle heats up Financial Times The Nikkei Retrieved 22 January 2017 Spotify valued at 1bn coming to US Investoo 18 June 2011 Archived from the original on 25 March 2012 Retrieved 7 November 2016 Constine Josh 14 November 2012 Report Spotify Has Closed A Massive Fifth Round Of Funding That Values It At 3 Billion TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 9 November 2016 MacMillan Douglas Demos Telis 10 April 2015 Spotify Nears Deal to Raise 400 Million at 8 4 Billion Valuation The Wall Street Journal Retrieved 9 November 2016 subscription required MacMillan Douglas Rossi Juhana 10 June 2015 Spotify Raises 526 Million Amid Battle With Apple The Wall Street Journal Retrieved 9 November 2016 subscription required Lunden Ingrid 27 January 2016 Spotify Is Raising Another 500M In Convertible Notes With Discounts On IPO Shares TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 9 November 2016 MacMillan Douglas Jarzemsky Matt Farrell Maureen 29 March 2016 Spotify Raises 1 Billion in Debt Financing The Wall Street Journal Retrieved 9 November 2016 subscription required Lunden Ingrid Roof Katie 2 February 2017 Sources Spotify may delay IPO to 2018 as it rethinks licensing deals TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 12 February 2017 Dillett Romain 17 November 2015 Spotify Bets On Data To Lure Artists To Its Platform TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 18 April 2017 Perez Sarah 18 April 2017 Spotify s artist dashboard exits beta offering streaming insights profile management amp more TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 18 April 2017 Rys Dan 18 April 2017 Spotify Upgrades Fan Insights Feature to Spotify for Artists Exclusive Billboard Retrieved 18 April 2017 Deahl Dani 20 September 2018 Spotify will now let artists directly upload their music to the platform The Verge Retrieved 10 April 2019 Darus Alex 2 July 2019 Spotify shuts down direct music uploading for independent artists Alternative Press Retrieved 3 July 2019 Aswad Jem 8 June 2017 Spotify Launches Secret Genius Program to Celebrate Songwriters EXCLUSIVE Variety Retrieved 9 June 2017 Perez Sarah 20 October 2017 Spotify launches RISE a new emerging artist program TechCrunch Oath Inc Retrieved 7 December 2017 Krishna Swapna 20 October 2017 Spotify s RISE program will try to find future music superstars Engadget Oath Inc Retrieved 7 December 2017 Spotify rolls out Written By playlists as it expands support for songwriters and publishers www musicweek com Retrieved 21 July 2020 Spotify Adds Hundreds More Songwriter Pages and Written By Playlists Billboard 9 July 2020 Retrieved 21 July 2020 Spotify Tests Audiobooks With Classics Collection Exclusive The Hollywood Reporter 25 January 2021 Retrieved 25 January 2021 Carman Ashley 5 May 2020 Daniel Radcliffe and others are reading chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone on video The Verge Retrieved 25 January 2021 Spotify s new Stations app is all about playlists without any of the faff Alphr Retrieved 25 May 2018 Spotify Stations is now available in the US The Verge published 4 June 2019 Lawler Richard 6 May 2022 Spotify will shut down its radio like listening app Stations on May 16th The Verge Retrieved 7 May 2022 Spotify Discover music podcasts and playlists Apps on Google Play play google com Spotify New Music and Podcasts App Store Get Spotify Music Microsoft Store Install Spotify for Linux using the Snap Store snapcraft a b Announcing Alpha amp Beta Programs community spotify com 4 December 2018 How we use Python at Spotify Spotify Labs Spotify 20 March 2013 Retrieved 8 March 2017 Spotify Is Rolling Out 36 New Languages on Mobile Spotify 11 March 2021 Retrieved 20 June 2021 a b Hamburger Ellis 15 November 2012 Spotify to begin rolling out browser based music app in beta today The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 13 November 2016 Spotify on Apple Watch Spotify Retrieved 6 July 2022 Chris Wedel 2 September 2021 How to use Spotify offline on Wear OS 3 watches Android Central Retrieved 6 July 2022 Warren Tom 20 June 2017 Spotify is now available in the Windows Store The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 20 June 2017 Weir Andy 20 June 2017 Spotify for Windows 10 PCs appears in the Windows Store but you can t have it Update Oh yes you can Neowin Retrieved 20 June 2017 Spotify vs Apple Music Which service is the streaming king Digital Trends 28 October 2016 Retrieved 14 November 2016 Russell Jon 2 March 2017 Spotify reaches 50 million paying users TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 6 June 2017 Dredge Stuart 30 November 2011 Spotify amps up iTunes rivalry with its own apps platform The Guardian Retrieved 8 November 2016 Cheredar Tom 12 June 2012 Even Spotify apps are getting funded Soundrop raises 3M to turn music social VentureBeat Retrieved 8 November 2016 Lunden Ingrid 11 June 2012 Spotify App Soundrop Tunes Into First Investment 3M From Spotify Lead Backer Northzone TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 8 November 2016 Lunden Ingrid 13 November 2014 Spotify Axes App Finder Kills Soundrop And Its Listening Rooms TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 8 November 2016 Constine Josh 11 April 2012 Spotify s New Embeddable Play Button Lets Any Site Turn You On To Legal Tunes TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 13 November 2016 Hamburger Ellis 6 December 2012 Spotify debuts new Discovery engine Collection and Follow which lets users follow friends and celebrities The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 6 June 2017 Warren Christina 6 December 2012 Spotify Wants to Make Music Discovery Truly Social Mashable Retrieved 6 June 2017 Lanxon Nate 6 December 2012 Spotify announces major updates to service gets Metallica catalogue Wired Archived from the original on 9 December 2012 Retrieved 9 November 2016 Welch Chris 20 May 2015 Spotify now does videos and podcasts The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 9 November 2016 Moynihan Tim 20 May 2017 Here are all the new features packed inside Spotify Wired Retrieved 6 June 2017 Crook Jordan 20 May 2015 Spotify Introduces Video Clips Podcasts And Activity Based Playlists TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 6 June 2017 How Spotify Wrapped Has Evolved Over The Years ScreenRant 7 December 2020 Retrieved 5 April 2021 Swant Marty Spotify Rolls Out New Wrapped Campaign To Help Users Remember Their Decade Of Music Forbes Retrieved 5 April 2021 Lunden Ingrid 12 January 2016 Spotify And Genius Team To Stream The Backstory On Music Tracks TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 30 March 2017 Kulwin Noah 12 January 2016 Spotify Adds Behind the Lyrics Playlists Powered by Lyrics Site Genius Recode Vox Media Retrieved 30 March 2017 Cox Jamieson 12 January 2016 Spotify and Genius are collaborating on info rich Behind the Lyrics playlists The Verge Retrieved 30 March 2017 Perez Sarah 25 April 2017 Spotify brings Behind the Lyrics to Android TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 25 April 2017 Dalton Andrew 25 April 2017 Spotify took its sweet time getting Behind the Lyrics on Android Engadget AOL Retrieved 25 April 2017 Spotify finally rolls out real time lyrics to global users TechCrunch published 18 November 2021 Garun Natt 5 May 2017 Spotify adds QR like codes for quick music sharing The Verge Vox Media Retrieved 6 May 2017 Constine Josh 5 May 2017 Scan these new QR style Spotify Codes to instantly play a song TechCrunch AOL Retrieved 6 May 2017 Clark Bryan 5 May 2017 Spotify Codes bring Snapchat like QR codes to music streaming The Next Web Retrieved 6 May 2017 a, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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