You can edit almost every page by Creating an account. Otherwise, see the FAQ.

Spotify

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki

Spotify Technology S.A.
Spotify Logo
Screenshot
File:Spotify Search.jpg
Screenshot of Spotify for iOS
Type of businessPublic
Traded asNYSESPOT
Founded23 April 2006; 17 years ago (2006-04-23)
Headquarters
Luxembourg City[1]
(legal domicile)
Stockholm, Sweden
(administrative headquarters)
Country of originSweden
No. of locations
Founder(s)Daniel Ek, Martin Lorentzon
CEODaniel Ek
IndustryStreaming on-demand media
RevenueIncrease US$5.98 billion (FY 2018)[3]
Net incomeIncrease US$88.65 million (FY 2018)[3]
Employees4,165+[4]
Websitewww.spotify.com
Alexa rankPositive decrease 106 (February 2019)[5]
RegistrationRequired
Users207 million
(96 million paying)
Launched7 October 2008; 15 years ago (2008-10-07)

Spotify (/ˈspɒtɪf/) is a Swedish audio streaming platform that provides DRM-protected music and podcasts from record labels and media companies. As a freemium service, basic features are free with advertisements or automatic music videos, while additional features, such as improved streaming quality, are offered via paid subscriptions.

Launched by Spotify AB on 7 October 2008, Spotify provides access to over forty million tracks[6]. Users can browse by parameters such as artist, album, or genre, and can create, edit, and share playlists. Spotify is available in most of Europe and the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Africa and Asia, and on most modern devices, including Windows, macOS, and Linux computers, and iOS, Windows Phone, and Android smartphones and tablets.[7][8] As of February 2019, it had 207 million monthly active users, including 96 million paying subscribers.[3]

Unlike physical or download sales, which pay artists a fixed price per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on the number of artists' streams as a proportion of total songs streamed. It distributes approximately 70% of total revenue[9] to rights holders, who then pay artists based on their individual agreements. Spotify has faced criticism from artists and producers including Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke, who have argued that it does not fairly compensate musicians. In 2017, as part of its efforts to renegotiate license deals for an interest in going public, Spotify announced that artists would be able to make albums temporarily exclusive to paid subscriptions if they are part of Universal Music Group or the Merlin Network.

Spotify AB is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Since February 2018 it has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In September 2018, the company moved its New York offices to 4 World Trade Center[10].

Business model[edit]

Spotify operates under a freemium business model (basic services are free, while additional features are offered via paid subscriptions). Spotify generates revenues by selling premium streaming subscriptions to users and advertising placements to third parties.

In December 2013, the company launched a new website, "Spotify for Artists", that explained 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 streamed 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 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 $.006 and $.0084.[11]

Spotify offers an unlimited subscription package, close to the Open Music Model (OMM)—estimated economic equilibrium—for the recording industry. However, the incorporation of digital rights management (DRM) protection[12] diverges from the OMM and competitors such as iTunes Store and Amazon Music that have dropped DRM.[13][14]

Spotify encourages people to pay for music, with subscriptions as its main revenue source.[11] The subscription removes advertisements and limits, and increases song bitrates to 320 kbit/s.[15] For example, in Norway, the figure of 1.2 billion unauthorized song downloads in 2008 is compared to a figure of 210 million from 2012.[11]

BBC Music Week editor Tim Ingham wrote: "Unlike buying a CD or download, streaming is not a one-off payment. Hundreds of millions of streams of tracks are happening each and every day, which quickly multiplies the potential revenues on offer – and is a constant long-term source of income for artists."[16]

Accounts and subscriptions[edit]

As of November 2018, the three Spotify subscription types, all offering unlimited listening time, are:

Type Free of ads Mobile listening Enhanced sound quality (up to 320kbit/s bitrate) Listen offline Spotify Connect
Spotify Free No Limited
(shuffle-only mode)
No No Limited
(Spotify Connect speaker with new SDK)
Spotify Premium &

Spotify for family

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

In March 2014, Spotify introduced a new, discounted Premium subscription tier for students. Students in the United States enrolled in a university can pay half-price for a Premium subscription.[17] In April 2017, the Students offer was expanded to 33 more countries.[18][19]

Spotify introduced its Family subscription in October 2014, connecting up to five family members for a shared Premium subscription.[20][21][22] Spotify Family was upgraded in May 2016, letting up to six people share a subscription and reducing the price.[23]

In November 2018, Spotify announced it is 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 SDK.[24][25]

Monetization[edit]

In 2007, just after launch, the company made a loss of 31.8 million Swedish kronor ($4.4 million).[26]

In October 2010, Wired reported that Spotify was making more money for labels in Sweden than any other retailer "online or off".[27]

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.[28]

Another source of income was music purchases from within the app. This service was removed in January 2013.[29]

In May 2016, Spotify announced "Sponsored Playlists", a monetisation opportunity in which brands are able to specify the audiences they have in mind, with Spotify matching the marketer with suitable music in a playlist.[30][31]

That September, Spotify announced that it had paid a total of over $5 billion to the music industry.[32] 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.[33][34]

As of 2017, Spotify was not yet a profitable company.[35]

Funding[edit]

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".[36]

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.[37]

A Goldman Sachs-led round of funding closed in November 2012, raising around $100 million at a $3 billion valuation.[38]

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.[39] The financing was closed in June 2015, with Spotify raising $526 million, at a value of $8.53 billion.[40]

In January 2016, Spotify raised another $500 million through convertible bonds.[41]

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.[42] 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".[43]

Advertisements[edit]

Spotify offers advertisers ten different types of advertising formats, described in 2016 as: Branded Moments, Sponsored Playlists, Sponsored Sessions, Video Takeovers, Audio, Display, Overlay, Homepage Takeovers, Branded Playlists, and Advertiser Pages. These advertisements vary in size, type and user engagement.[44]

  • Branded Moments allow brands to "tell their story over a series of sequential displays with 100% share-of-voice during the 30-minute session" by using "an immersive vertical video" and can unlock 30 minutes of uninterrupted music.[45]
  • Sponsored Playlist is an "exclusive one week sponsorship of Spotify’s top owned & operated playlists".[46]
  • Sponsored Sessions allow brands to "offer their audience uninterrupted listening in exchange for a video view". They are only available on mobile and tablet devices and are limited to select markets.[47]
  • Video Takeover is a "video spot with a companion display unit", are "served during commercial ad breaks between songs in a music session", and are only available on the computer apps.[48]
  • Audio Ads are "served during commercial ad breaks between songs in a music session" with a maximum duration of 30 seconds and play every 15 minutes.[49]
  • Display Ads are "clickable images displayed for 30 seconds". Display ads are shown at the bottom of the Spotify client.[50]
  • Overlay is "Spotify's 'welcome back' ad. It greets returning users on mobile and desktop with a can't-be-missed, large display ad to maximize brand impact and performance".[51]
  • Homepage Takeovers are "a combination of background skin and optional interactive area that takes over the Spotify homepage".[52]
  • Branded Playlists are "Spotify playlists that contain a branded cover art image and text". They can only have one song per artist, and must have a minimum of 20 tracks in the playlist.[53]
  • Advertiser Pages are a "microsite seamlessly integrated into the Spotify player", that can "contain practically any content you'd find on a webpage, including videos, clickable images, blogs, news, links, and comments."[54]

Downloads[edit]

Starting in March 2009, Spotify offered music downloads in the United Kingdom, France, and Spain. Users could purchase each track from Spotify, which partnered with 7digital to incorporate the feature.[55] However, the ability to purchase and download music tracks via the app was removed on 4 January 2013.[29]

Spotify for Artists[edit]

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.[56] In April 2017, the panel was upgraded to leave beta status, renamed as "Spotify for Artists", and opening up 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, and customising the profile page with photos and promoting a certain song as their "pick".[57][58]

In September 2018, Spotify announced "Upload Beta", allowing artists to upload directly from the platform instead of going through a distributor or record label.[59] The feature is being rolled out by invitation to a small amount of US based artists.[60] Uploading has no charges, and artists receive 100% of the revenue from songs they have uploaded.[61] Artists are also able to control when their release goes public as well.[62]

Industry initiatives[edit]

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 to the music industry and the artists' careers. The new project, which will 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 Global Head of Creator Services Troy Carter told Variety. The first awards ceremony will take place in late 2017,[needs update] and is 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 will each host a Songshop workshop, in which their peers will collaboratively attempt to create a hit song, with the first workshop to take place in Los Angeles sometime in June 2017.[63]

In October 2017, Spotify launched "Rise", a new program aimed at promoting emerging artists.[64][65]

Stations by Spotify[edit]

On 31 January 2018, Spotify started testing a new Pandora-styled standalone app called Stations by Spotify for Australian Android users.[66] It features 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 is to get users to listen to the music they want straightaway without information overload or spending time building their own playlists. At launch, the skipping feature is not featured to "reinforce the feel of radio",[67] but it was quietly added later, and with no limits. Songs can be "loved" but can't be "hated". If a song is "loved", a custom radio channel will be created based on it, and when there are at least 15 songs, a "My Favourites" channel is unlocked. In case the users don't subscribe to Spotify Premium, they'll hear location-targeted adverts.

Platforms[edit]

Spotify
Screenshot
File:Spotify iOS Now Playing.png
"Clearest Blue" by CHVRCHES being played in the Spotify for iOS app.
Developer(s)Spotify AB
Initial release7 October 2008 (2008-10-07)
Written inPrimarily Python, with some Java, C, and C++ components[68]
Engine
    Operating systemAndroid, iOS, Windows, macOS and Linux
    Available in
    TypeMusic streaming
    LicenseProprietary

    Search Spotify on Amazon.

    Spotify has client software available for Windows, macOS, and Linux PCs, along with Android, iOS, and Windows Phone smartphones and tablets.[69] It also has 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.[70] Spotify also features a web player, for those who are unable to – or do not want to – download any app.[71] Contrary to 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.[72][73]

    File:Spotify on Desktop Client (Mac OS X).png
    Spotify Desktop Client running on Mac OS X Mojave

    Features[edit]

    On 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 40 million songs.[74][75]

    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.[76][77] In June 2012, Soundrop became the first Spotify app to attract major funding, receiving $3 million from Spotify investor Northzone.[78][79] However, after the June 2014 announcement of a Web API that allowed third-party developers to integrate Spotify content in their own web applications,[80] 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".[81][82]

    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.[83][84] 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.[71]

    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" gives users new releases from their favourite artists, as well as music, review, and concert recommendations based on listening history. Users can add all tracks to a "Collection" section of the app, rather than adding to a specific playlist.[85][86] The features were announced by CEO Daniel Ek at a press conference, with Ek stating 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", adding that "20,000" new songs got added to the service on a daily basis. "You're fighting with 20 million songs on Spotify", Ek stated.[87]

    In May 2015, Spotify announced a new Home start page that would serve up recommended music, with recommendations improving over time. The company also introduced "Spotify Running", a feature aimed at improving music while running with music matched to running tempo (this feature was removed in March 2018 from Mobile client), and announced that podcasts and videos ("entertainment, news and clips") would be coming to Spotify, along with "Spotify Originals" content.[88] "We’re bringing you a deeper, richer, more immersive Spotify experience", commented CEO Daniel Ek.[89][90][91][92]

    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 select playlists and was only available on Spotify's iOS app at launch,[93][94][95] being expanded to the Android app in April 2017.[96][97]

    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-like 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 exact content.[98][99][100]

    In January 2019, Spotify introduced Car View for Android, allowing devices running android to have compact Now Playing screen if the device connected to Car Bluetooth. The company mentioned in Spotify Community forum that this feature can be either temporary disabled until next drive or permanently disabled in the settings and exclusively Bluetooth connection thus AUX cable connection currently listed as incompatible.[101][102][103]

    Playlists and discovery[edit]

    In July 2015, Spotify launched Discover Weekly, a weekly generated playlist, updated on Mondays, that brings users two hours of custom-made music recommendations, mixing a user's personal taste with songs enjoyed by similar listeners.[104][105] In December 2015, Quartz reported that songs in Discover Weekly playlists had been streamed 1.7 billion times,[106] and Spotify wrote in May 2016 that Discover Weekly had reached "nearly" 5 billion tracks streamed since the July 2015 launch.[107]

    In March 2016, built by Discover Weekly's success, Spotify launched six new generated 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 lesser-known musicians and their songs which are listened to by 100,000 randomly chosen users and are talked about on 10 to 20,000 music blogs. They are updated every Wednesday, and can contain a maximum of up to 50 songs.[108]

    In August 2016, Spotify launched Release Radar, a personalised playlist that allows users to stay up-to-date on new music released by 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 can be a maximum of up to two hours in length.[109][110][111]

    In September 2016, Spotify introduced Daily Mix, a series of (up to six) playlists that have "near endless playback" and mixes the user's favourite 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,[112] but the feature was later expanded to Spotify's computer app in December 2016.[113]

    Playlist curators[edit]

    As of July 2016, Spotify's genre-based playlists are led by the following curators (in alphabetical order):[114]

    Listening limitations[edit]

    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.[115][116] 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.[117][118]

    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."[119][120]

    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.[121][122]

    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.[123]

    As of April 2019, all service users are limited to 10,000 songs in their library, after which they will receive an "Epic collection, friend" notification, and will not be able to save more music to their library. Adding playlists at this point also arbitrarily removes older playlists from the users' library.

    Technical information[edit]

    Spotify is proprietary and uses digital rights management (DRM) protection.[12] Spotify's terms and conditions do not permit users to reverse-engineer the application.[124]

    Audio format[125]
    Desktop Android iPhone, iPad Web player Chromecast
    24 kbit/s HE-AACv2 24 kbit/s Ogg Vorbis
    96kbit/s Ogg Vorbis
    128kbit/s AAC
    160kbit/s Ogg Vorbis
    256kbit/s AAC
    (premium)
    320kbit/s Ogg Vorbis
    (premium)
    320kbit/s Ogg Vorbis

    Spotify allows users to add local audio files for music not in its catalogue into the user's library through Spotify's desktop application, and then allows users to synchronise 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.[126]

    Spotify has a median playback latency of 265 ms (including local cache).[127]

    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."[128]

    Geographic availability[edit]

    Map of the countries in which Spotify is available.

    Spotify is available in 79 countries.[129][130][131]

    History[edit]

    Early development[edit]

    Daniel Ek addressing Spotify staff

    Spotify was developed in 2006[164] by a team at Spotify AB, in Stockholm, Sweden. The company was founded by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of TradeDoubler. The company's title, according to Daniel Ek, was initially misheard from a name shouted by Martin Lorentzon. Later they thought out an etymology of a combination of "spot" and "identify".[165] Spotify Sweden AB, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, handles research and development.[166] The company is a subsidiary of Spotify Ltd., a company headquartered in London, United Kingdom,[167] which in turn is a subsidiary of Spotify Technology S.A., headquartered in Luxembourg.[1] Spotify has offices in 20 countries as of November 2016.[168]

    Launch in 2008[edit]

    Spotify's original logo (2008–2012)

    The Spotify application was launched on 7 October 2008. While free accounts remained available by invitation to manage the growth of the service, the launch opened paid subscriptions to everyone. At the same time, Spotify AB announced licensing deals with major music labels.[169]

    Early international launches[edit]

    Former Spotify headquarters in Stockholm

    In February 2009, Spotify opened public registration for the free service tier in the United Kingdom.[170] 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.[171] Premium cards were offered for the 2009 Christmas season that allowed recipients to upgrade an account to "Premium" status for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months.[172]

    For the service's launch in the United States in July 2011, Spotify had a six-month free ad-supported trial period, where new users could listen to an unlimited amount of music. In January 2012, the free trial started expiring, with users limited to ten hours each month and five song replays.[173] In March, Spotify removed all limits on the free service tier indefinitely.[174]

    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 in order 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.[175]

    Towards the end of 2016, the company launched its "largest [marketing] campaign to date", by placing large-scale billboards in major cities around the world that humorously mocked users' listening habits. Billboards featured commentary such as "Dear person who made a playlist called: ‘One Night Stand With Jeb Bush Like He’s a Bond Girl in a European Casino.’ We have so many questions"; "To the 1,235 guys who loved the “Girls Night” playlist this year, We love you", and "Dear person who played ‘Sorry’ 42 times on Valentine's Day, What did you do?” Spotify's Chief Marketing Officer Seth Farbman told Creativity that "there has been some debate about whether big data is muting creativity in marketing, but we have turned that on its head ... For us, data inspires and gives an insight into the emotion that people are expressing."[176][177]

    In February 2017, Spotify announced a major expansion of its US operations in Lower Manhattan, New York City, at 4 World Trade Center, into one of its largest operations, adding approximately 1,000 new jobs and retaining 832 existing positions.[178] The company's US headquarters are located in New York City's Flatiron District.[179]

    In 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, while supporting Right-to-left text in their apps.[180]

    Other developments[edit]

    Streaming records[edit]

    In October 2015, "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran became the first song to pass 500 million streams.[181] A month later, Spotify announced that "Lean On" by Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring was its most streamed song of all time with over 525 million streams worldwide.[182] In April 2016, Rihanna overtook Justin Bieber to become the biggest artist on Spotify, with 31.3 million monthly active listeners.[183] In May 2016, Rihanna was overtaken by Drake with 3.185 billion total streams.[184] In December 2016, Drake's just-under 36 million monthly listeners were overtaken by the Weeknd's 36.068 million.[185] Later that month, Drake's song "One Dance" became the first song to hit one billion streams on Spotify.[186][187] 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.[188] On June 19, 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.

    User growth[edit]

    In March 2011, Spotify announced a customer base of one million paying subscribers across Europe,[189] and by September 2011, the number of paying subscribers had doubled to two million.[190] In August 2012, Time reported 15 million active users, four million being paying Spotify subscribers.[191] User growth continued, reaching 20 million total active users, including 5 million paying customers globally and 1 million paying customers in the United States, in December 2012.[192] By March 2013, the service had 24 million active users, 6 million being paying subscribers,[193] which grew to 40 million users (including 10 million paying) in May 2014,[194] 60 million users (including 15 million paying) in December 2014,[195] 75 million users (20 million paying) in June 2015,[196] 30 million paying subscribers in March 2016,[197] 40 million subscribers in September 2016,[198] and 100 million total users in June 2016.[199]

    As of February 2019, Spotify had 207 million active users, including over 96 million paying subscribers.[200][201]

    Initial public offering[edit]

    According to TechCrunch, Spotify was planning to launch on the stock market in 2017, but is instead 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".[43] The value of its IPO is estimated to be in a range of $6.3 billion to $23 billion.[202] The latter figure would make Spotify's IPO one of the biggest in the tech sector since 2012.[202] However, unlike in an ordinary public offering, Spotify will not issue new shares, but the company's existing shareholders will be taking their shares directly to the market. This approach is not intended to raise fresh capital, but to let investors get their returns.[203][204][202] Morgan Stanley is the company's slated advisor on the matter.[204]

    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 will 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".[205][206][207] 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".[208][209][210] It was announced later in April that this type of agreement would be extended to indie artists signed to the Merlin Network agency.[211][212]

    After going live on the New York Stock Exchange on 3 April 2018, CNBC reported that Spotify opened at $165.90, more than 25 per cent above its reference price of $132.[213]

    Acquisitions[edit]

    In March 2014, Spotify announced that it had acquired The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company that has "in depth musical understanding and tools for curation to drive music discovery for millions of users around the globe".[214][215] In June 2015, Spotify 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.[216][217] In April 2016, Spotify acquired 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".[218][219] In March 2017, Spotify acquired Sonalytic,[220] an audio detection startup, for an undisclosed amount of money. Spotify stated that Sonalytic will be used to improve the company's personalised playlists, better match songs with compositions, and improve the company's publishing data system.[221] Spotify also acquired MightyTV later in March, an app connected to television streaming services, including Netflix and HBO Go, that recommends content to users. Spotify will mainly be using MightyTV to improve its advertising efforts on the free tier of service.[222] In April 2017, Spotify acquired Mediachain, a blockchain startup with several technologies that can aid Spotify's effort in connecting artists and rights-holders with the tracks on its service.[223][224] In May 2017, Spotify acquired artificial intelligence startup Niland, and will use its technology to improve its personalisation and recommendation features for users.[225][226] In November 2017, Spotify acquired SoundTrap, an online music studio startup.[227][228] On 12 April 2018, Spotify acquired the music licensing platform Loudr.[229] On 6 February 2019, the company announced it would acquire New York podcasting companies Gimlet Media and Anchor FM Inc., establishing itself as a major player in podcasting.[230] On March, Spotify announced to acquire another podcast network, Parcast.[231]

    Company partnerships[edit]

    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, in 41 markets around the world. The service enables users to listen to their favourite tracks while gaming.[232] The new service launched on 30 March 2015.[233]

    In March 2017, Spotify announced a partnership with the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference for 2017, presenting specific content in special playlists through a SXSW hub in Spotify's Browse tab in the mobile and desktop apps. The integration also enabled Spotify within the SXSW GO app to help users discover and explore artists performing at the conference.[234] Two more partnerships were announced in March; one with WNYC Studios, and one with Waze. The WNYC Studios partnership will bring 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 will premiere with a two-week exclusivity period on the service on 21 March 2017. The podcasts will be available for all Spotify Free and Premium users.[235][236] The Waze partnership will allow Android app users to view directions to destinations within the Spotify app, and access their Spotify playlists through the Waze app.[237][238]

    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.[239]

    In November 2017, it was announced that Pat McGrath Labs cosmetics would be sold through Spotify via Merchbar on singer Maggie Lindemann's artist page.[240]

    In December 2017, Spotify and Tencent's music arm, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), agreed to swap stakes and make investment in each other's music businesses, forming an alliance in the music industry.[241][242] As a result of this transaction, Spotify gained a 9% stake in TME with TME gaining a 7.5% stake in Spotify.[243]

    In February 2018, Spotify and Discord teamed up, allowing Discord desktop app users, on both PC and Mac, to publicly display on their profile what music they're listening to, and if the users have Spotify's Premium service, they can listen to each other's music together in real-time.[244]

    In April 2018, Spotify announced a discounted entertainment bundle with video-on-demand provider Hulu.[245]

    Dispute with Apple[edit]

    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.[246] 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."[247]

    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 or not 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".[248][249]

    The following months, Spotify began efforts to "punish" artists who gave Apple Music exclusives by displaying their content less prominently on Spotify and offering fewer promotional opportunities,[250] and joined several other companies in filing a letter with the European Union's anti-trust body vaguely 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'".[251][252] The complaint led to the European Union announcing that it will prepare an initiative by the end of 2017 for a possible law addressing unfair competition practices.[253][254]

    Spotify released its first version of the Apple Watch app in November 2018, which features playback control of the iPhone via the watch. Users can also choose which devices to play music on via Bluetooth.[255] In further escalation of the spat with Apple, on 13 March 2019, Spotify filed an anti-trust complaint with the European commission over unfair app store practices. Two days later Apple responded stating that the complaint was a misleading rhetoric and that Spotify wanted benefits of a free app without being a free app. Spotify responded with a statement calling Apple as a monopolist and stated in their statement that Apple's response was as expected and they had only filed the complaint as Apple's actions hurt competition and consumers and was in clear violation of law. It also said that Apple believed Spotify users on app store were Apple's customers and not Spotify's.[256]

    Organizational development strategy[edit]

    An article was written in the scholarly journal IEEE Software in February 2019 outlines Spotify's strategy to assist its engineers in software development across geographically disparate offices and teams. The organizational framework supporting Spotify's software development is extensive, grouping their employees first into "tribes", which are composed of between 30 and 200 engineers each, with a clear mission, set of principles and a senior leader. Within each tribe are smaller groups called squads and chapters: squads are meant to feel like mini-start-ups facilitating creativity by including cross-functional roles, whereas chapters share the same manager and are meant to be focused on personal growth and skills development by discussing shared challenges. Bridging these groups is a concept called a "guild", which is made up of employees with similar skills and interests, hoping to share their coding experiences and knowledge. Guilds are different from the other groups in that they are voluntary and not restricted to each geographical office whereas the others are physically separate.[257]

    Accolades[edit]

    In September 2010, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.[258][259]

    In August 2017, Spotify was the most downloaded music app on the iOS platform in the United States.[260]

    Criticism[edit]

    Spotify has attracted significant criticism since its 2008 launch.[169] The primary point of criticism centres around what artists, music creators and the media have described as "unsustainable" compensation.[261] Unlike physical sales or legal downloads, which pay artists a fixed price 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.[11]

    Spotify has been criticized by artists including Thom Yorke and Taylor Swift, who withdrew their music from the service.[262][263] Their catalogues returned to the service in 2017.[264][265] While the streaming music industry in general faces the same critique about inadequate payments,[266] Spotify, being the leading service,[267] faces particular scrutiny due to its free service tier, allowing users to listen to music for free, though with advertisements between tracks.[268] The free service tier has led to a variety of major album releases being delayed or withdrawn from the service.[269][270][271] In response to the allegations about unfair compensation, Spotify claims that it is benefitting the industry by migrating users away from piracy and less monetised platforms to its free service tier, and then encouraging them to upgrade to paid accounts.[11] A study has shown that record labels keep a high amount of the money earned from Spotify,[272][273] 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.[274]

    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.[275] 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".[276] However, artists such as Gary Glitter and Lostprophets are still hidden from Spotify's radio stations and search results.[277]

    In addition to the previous criticism, the company has attracted media attention for several forms of security breaches,[278][279] as well as for controversial company behaviours, including a significant change to its privacy policy,[280] "pay for play" practices based on receiving money from labels for putting specific songs on popular playlists,[281] and allegedly creating "fake artists" for prominent playlist placement,[282] the last of which Spotify has vehemently denied.[283]

    Spotify has also come under criticism[284] for carrying podcasts of the right wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He claims, for instance, that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting where 20 children were killed in 2012 was a government hoax.[285] It has, however, decided to remove some[286] of his media content.

    Literature[edit]

    • Maria Eriksson et al. (2019): Spotify Teardown: Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music, The MIT Press, ISBN 978-0262038904 Search this book on ..[287]

    See also[edit]

    References[edit]

    1. 1.0 1.1 "Company Overview of Spotify Technology S.A." Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    2. "About Us". www.spotify.com. Spotify AB. July 12, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
    3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Shareholder Letter Q4 2018" (PDF). spotify.com.
    4. "Spotify Investors - Financial Releases". Spotify Investors. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
    5. "Spotify.com Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
    6. "Spotify — Company Info". Spotify. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
    7. "Spotify on TV - Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
    8. "Spotify Music | Roku Channel Store | Roku". Roku Channel Store. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
    9. Sehgal, Kabir (2018-01-26). "Spotify and Apple Music should become record labels so musicians can make a fair living". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
    10. "Spotify Expands NYC Offices (Again) at 4 World Trade Center". Commercial Observer. 2018-09-21. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
    11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 "How is Spotify contributing to the music business?". Spotify. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    12. 12.0 12.1 Orlowski, Andrew (31 August 2009). "Spotify, DRM and the celestial jukebox". The Register. Situation Publishing. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    13. Johnson, Bobbie (6 January 2009). "Apple drops DRM copy protection from millions of iTunes songs". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
    14. Reisinger, Don (4 January 2008). "Warner Music Group drops DRM, joins Amazon". TechRadar. Future plc. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
    15. "Spotify's Latest Statement On Sound Quality & Bitrate". Spotify Classical Playlists. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    16. "Spotify reveals artists earn $0.007 per stream". BBC News. BBC. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
    17. Hernandez, Brian Anthony (25 March 2014). "Spotify Slashes Subscription Prices for College Students". Mashable. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
    18. Dalton, Andrew (19 April 2017). "Spotify's half-price plan for students comes to 33 more countries". Engadget. Oath Inc. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
    19. Lancaster, Luke (19 April 2017). "Students can now pick up Spotify Premium for half price". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
    20. 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.
    21. 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.
    22. https://gearsrealm.com/spotify-vs-tidal-whats-better/
    23. 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.
    24. Heater, Brian (7 November 2018). "Spotify Connect speakers will soon work with its free tier". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
    25. Sawers, Paul (7 November 2018). "Spotify Connect for speakers opens to free users via a new SDK". Venturebeat. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
    26. 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.
    27. Geere, Duncan (29 October 2010). "Spotify now top-tier music revenue source in Sweden". Wired. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
    28. 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.
    29. 29.0 29.1 Brian, Matt (4 January 2013). "Spotify is no longer offering new music download purchases to its users". The Next Web. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
    30. Swant, Marty (26 May 2016). "Spotify Will Now Let Brands Sponsor the Most Popular Playlists". Adweek. Beringer Capital. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
    31. Morrison, Maureen (26 May 2016). "Spotify Opens Its Popular Playlists to Sponsors". Advertising Age. Crain Communications. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
    32. Ingham, Tim (29 September 2016). "Spotify has already paid the music industry over $1.2bn this year". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
    33. 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.
    34. 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.
    35. Plummer, Robert (12 February 2017). "The clock is ticking for Spotify". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
    36. Bradshaw, Tim; Menn, Joseph (1 March 2010). "Spotify-MOG battle heats up". Financial Times. The Nikkei. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
    37. "Spotify valued at $1bn, coming to US". Investoo. 18 June 2011. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    38. 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.
    39. MacMillan, Douglas; Demos, Telis (10 April 2015). "Spotify Nears Deal to Raise $400 Million at $8.4 Billion Valuation". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved 9 November 2016. (subscription required)
    40. MacMillan, Douglas; Rossi, Juhana (10 June 2015). "Spotify Raises $526 Million Amid Battle With Apple". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved 9 November 2016. (subscription required)
    41. Lunden, Ingrid (27 January 2016). "Spotify Is Raising Another $500M In Convertible Notes With Discounts On IPO Shares". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    42. MacMillan, Douglas; Jarzemsky, Matt; Farrell, Maureen (29 March 2016). "Spotify Raises $1 Billion in Debt Financing". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved 9 November 2016. (subscription required)
    43. 43.0 43.1 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.
    44. "Formats". Spotify. Archived from the original on 19 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    45. "Branded Moments". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    46. "Sponsored Playlist". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    47. "Sponsored Session". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    48. "Video Takeover". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    49. "Audio". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    50. "Display". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    51. "Overlay". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    52. "Homepage Takeover". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    53. "Branded Playlists". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    54. "Advertiser Page". Spotify. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    55. "Expanded "Buy From" feature and a Spanish translation". Spotify. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
    56. Dillett, Romain (17 November 2015). "Spotify Bets On Data To Lure Artists To Its Platform". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
    57. Perez, Sarah (18 April 2017). "Spotify's artist dashboard exits beta, offering streaming insights, profile management & more". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
    58. Rys, Dan (18 April 2017). "Spotify Upgrades Fan Insights Feature to 'Spotify for Artists': Exclusive". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
    59. Deahl, Dani (2018-09-20). "Spotify will now let artists directly upload their music to the platform". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
    60. "Now in Beta: Upload your music in Spotify for Artists – News – Spotify for Artists". artists.spotify.com. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
    61. "Upload beta – Guide – Spotify for Artists". artists.spotify.com. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
    62. "Upload beta – Guide – Spotify for Artists". artists.spotify.com. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
    63. Aswad, Jem (8 June 2017). "Spotify Launches 'Secret Genius' Program to Celebrate Songwriters (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
    64. Perez, Sarah (20 October 2017). "Spotify launches RISE, a new emerging artist program". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
    65. Krishna, Swapna (20 October 2017). "Spotify's RISE program will try to find future music superstars". Engadget. Oath Inc. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
    66. "Spotify's new Stations app is all about playlists without any of the faff". Alphr. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
    67. "Stations - Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
    68. "How we use Python at Spotify". Spotify Labs. Spotify. 20 March 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
    69. "Download Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    70. "Connecting to a device using Spotify Connect". Spotify. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    71. 71.0 71.1 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.
    72. Warren, Tom (20 June 2017). "Spotify is now available in the Windows Store". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
    73. 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.
    74. "Spotify vs. Apple Music: Which service is the streaming king?". Digital Trends. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
    75. Russell, Jon (2 March 2017). "Spotify reaches 50 million paying users". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
    76. Ek, Daniel (30 November 2011). "Say hello to Spotify Apps". Spotify. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    77. Dredge, Stuart (30 November 2011). "Spotify amps up iTunes rivalry with its own apps platform". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    78. Cheredar, Tom (12 June 2012). "Even Spotify apps are getting funded: Soundrop raises $3M to turn music social". VentureBeat. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    79. Lunden, Ingrid (11 June 2012). "Spotify App Soundrop Tunes Into First Investment: $3M From Spotify Lead Backer Northzone". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    80. Pérez, José (17 June 2014). "Say Hello to Our New Web API". Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    81. "Spotify Apps API (Discontinued)". Spotify. 29 October 2014. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    82. Lunden, Ingrid (13 November 2014). "Spotify Axes App Finder, Kills Soundrop And Its Listening Rooms". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    83. 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.
    84. "Spotify Play Button". Spotify. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    85. 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.
    86. Warren, Christina (6 December 2012). "Spotify Wants to Make Music Discovery Truly Social". Mashable. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
    87. Lanxon, Nate (6 December 2012). "Spotify announces major updates to service, gets Metallica catalogue". Wired. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    88. "[Running] Bring back Running".
    89. "Say hello to the most entertaining Spotify ever". Spotify. 20 May 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    90. Welch, Chris (20 May 2015). "Spotify now does videos and podcasts". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    91. Moynihan, Tim (20 May 2017). "Here are all the new features packed insider Spotify". Wired. Condé Nast. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
    92. Crook, Jordan (20 May 2015). "Spotify Introduces Video Clips, Podcasts, And Activity-Based Playlists". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
    93. Lunden, Ingrid (12 January 2016). "Spotify And Genius Team To Stream The Backstory On Music Tracks". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
    94. Kulwin, Noah (12 January 2016). "Spotify Adds 'Behind the Lyrics' Playlists, Powered by Lyrics Site Genius". Recode. Vox Media. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
    95. Cox, Jamieson (12 January 2016). "Spotify and Genius are collaborating on info-rich Behind the Lyrics playlists". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
    96. Perez, Sarah (25 April 2017). "Spotify brings "Behind the Lyrics" to Android". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
    97. Dalton, Andrew (25 April 2017). "Spotify took its sweet time getting Behind the Lyrics on Android". Engadget. AOL. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
    98. Garun, Natt (5 May 2017). "Spotify adds QR-like codes for quick music sharing". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
    99. Constine, Josh (5 May 2017). "Scan these new QR-style Spotify Codes to instantly play a song". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
    100. Clark, Bryan (5 May 2017). "Spotify Codes bring Snapchat-like QR codes to music streaming". The Next Web. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
    101. "Car view for Android users". community.spotify.com. 2019-01-17. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
    102. "[Update: Rolling out as 'Car View'] Spotify tests stripped-down "Safety Mode" UI when connected to Bluetooth devices". xda-developers. 2019-01-18. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
    103. Welch, Chris (2019-01-16). "Spotify launches a simplified Car View for controlling your music while driving". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
    104. Kokalitcheva, Kia (20 July 2015). "Spotify's new feature will help you fight the Monday blues". Fortune. Time Inc. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
    105. Dredge, Stuart (20 July 2015). "Spotify bites back at Apple Music with weekly 'mixtape' playlist for each user". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
    106. Pasick, Adam (21 December 2015). "The magic that makes Spotify's Discover Weekly playlists so damn good". Quartz. Atlantic Media. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
    107. "Discover Weekly Reaches Nearly 5 Billion Tracks Streamed Since Launch". Spotify. 25 May 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
    108. "Spotify now has even more playlists to help you find hot new music". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-06-10.
    109. "Release Radar: Your Personalized Playlist of the Newest Releases". Spotify. 5 August 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    110. Popper, Ben (5 August 2016). "Spotify's Release Radar is a personalized playlist of brand-new music". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    111. Constine, Josh (5 August 2016). "Spotify follows Discover Weekly with personalized new releases playlist". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    112. "Rediscover Your Favorite Music with Daily Mix". Spotify. 27 September 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
    113. Ogle, Matthew (14 December 2016). "Big day today: Daily Mixes have landed on desktop @Spotify! Here are mine, how're yours looking?". Twitter. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
    114. "The Playlist Professionals At Apple, Spotify, And Google". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
    115. Butcher, Mike (14 April 2011). "Spotify takes the axe to its free service – can it now claim to slash music piracy?". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
    116. Ek, Daniel (14 April 2011). "Upcoming changes to Spotify Free/Open". Spotify. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    117. O'Hear, Steve (19 March 2013). "Spotify Ditches Its 5 Play Limit For Spotify Free Users In The UK". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
    118. Richmond, Shane (19 March 2013). "Spotify removes five-play song cap". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
    119. Hamburger, Ellis (11 December 2013). "Spotify announces free streaming on Android and iPhone, but only in Shuffle mode". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    120. Crook, Jordan (11 December 2013). "Spotify Goes Freemium On Tablets, Launches Free Shuffle Product On Smartphones". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
    121. Murray-Morris, Sophie (15 January 2014). "Spotify removes time restrictions on free desktop player". The Independent. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
    122. Constine, Josh (15 January 2014). "Spotify Drops Free Web Listening Time Limit Everywhere – A Big Scalability Milestone". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
    123. "Spotify beefs up its free tier – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
    124. "Spotify Terms and Conditions of Use: User guidelines". Spotify. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
    125. "Audio settings". Spotify. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
    126. "Local files". Spotify. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
    127. Kreitz, Gunnar; Niemelä, Fredrik. "Spotify – Large Scale, Low Latency, P2P Music-on-Demand Streaming" (PDF). Royal Institute of Technology. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    128. Ernesto (16 April 2014). "Spotify Starts Shutting Down Its Massive P2P Network". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
    129. "About Spotify". Spotify Press. Spotify. Archived from the original on 23 March 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
    130. "Where is Spotify available?". Spotify. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
    131. Mercuri, Monica. "Spotify Reports First Quarterly Operating Profit, Reaches 96 Million Paid Subscribers". Forbes. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
    132. Synskey, Dorian (10 November 2013). "Is Daniel Ek, Spotify founder, going to save the music industry … or destroy it?". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    133. "Spotify now available to everyone in the UK". Spotify. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    134. "Spotify Launches In The Netherlands". Spotify. 18 May 2011. Archived from the original on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    135. Ek, Daniel (14 July 2011). "Hello America. Spotify here". Spotify. Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    136. Milian, Mark (15 July 2011). "Spotify music-streaming service launches in U.S." CNN. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    137. Van Grove, Jennifer (12 October 2011). "Spotify Launches in its Ninth Country: Denmark". Mashable. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
    138. Peoples, Glenn (12 October 2011). "Spotify Launches In Denmark, Its Ninth Country". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
    139. "Hello Austria. Spotify here". Spotify. 15 November 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
    140. Rego, Diego (16 November 2011). "A big hello to Belgium and Switzerland". Spotify. Archived from the original on 9 July 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    141. Roxborough, Scott (12 March 2012). "Spotify Launching In Germany Tuesday". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    142. Peoples, Glenn (21 May 2012). "Spotify to Launch in Australia and New Zealand Tuesday". Billboard. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
    143. "Spotify launches in Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 May 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
    144. "Spotify (finally) launches in Ireland". The Irish Times. 13 November 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    145. Lunden, Ingrid (13 November 2012). "Spotify Is Now Live In 17 Countries After Quietly Adding Ireland And Luxembourg Today". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    146. "@Spotify now available in Andorra, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Monaco". Twitter. 13 November 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
    147. "Hello Italy, Poland and Portugal. Spotify here". Spotify. 12 February 2013. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    148. "Hola. Helo. Tere. Sveiki. 你好. Selamat datang". Spotify. 16 April 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    149. "Spotify begins Latin America push with Mexico launch". BBC News. BBC. 16 April 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    150. "Hello Argentina, Taiwan, Greece and Turkey – Spotify here!". Spotify. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    151. Russell, Jon (24 September 2013). "Spotify is now live in 32 countries after launching in Taiwan, Argentina, Greece and Turkey". The Next Web. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    152. Fleischfresser, Channtal (12 December 2013). "Hello to our new friends in Europe and Latin America!". Spotify. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
    153. Kastrenakes, Jacob (11 December 2013). "Spotify launches in 20 new markets throughout Latin America and Europe". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    154. Tan, Priscilla (8 April 2014). "Mabuhay Philippines! Spotify here". Spotify. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    155. Rego, Diego; Fleischfresser, Channtal (28 May 2014). "Olá, Brasil! Spotify here". Spotify. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    156. Katz, Candice (30 September 2014). "Hello Canada. Spotify here!". Spotify. Archived from the original on 26 January 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    157. "Halo Indonesia. Waktunya Spotify!". Spotify. 30 March 2016. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    158. "Spotify Arrives in Japan". Spotify. 29 September 2016. Archived from the original on 30 September 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    159. "CONFIRMED: Spotify to launch in Thailand on August 22". The Nation. Nation Multimedia Group. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
    160. Russell, Jon (21 August 2017). "Spotify launches in Thailand to continue its Asia push". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
    161. "Spotify launches in Israel, Romania, South Africa and Vietnam". Spotify.
    162. "Spotify Launches in the Middle East and North Africa". Variety.
    163. "Spotify Now Available in India, Apps Show Up on App Store, Google Play". NDTV India.
    164. "Spotify.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools". Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    165. Ek, Daniel (31 December 2010). "How did Spotify get its name?". Quora. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    166. "Company Overview of Spotify AB". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    167. "Company Overview of Spotify Limited". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    168. "Contact – Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    169. 169.0 169.1 "We've only just begun!". Spotify. 7 October 2008. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    170. "Spotify now available to everyone in the UK". Spotify. 10 February 2010. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    171. "Back to invites for a while in the UK". Spotify. 10 September 2009. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    172. "Spotify Premium e-cards, just in time for the holidays". Spotify. 2 December 2009. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    173. Flacy, Mike (6 January 2012). "Unlimited listening on Spotify will vanish for U.S. early adopters next week". Digital Trends. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    174. "Announcing continued unlimited free listening!". Spotify. 29 March 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
    175. Sheffield, Hazel (15 April 2016). "Spotify's threats to leave Sweden spur startup protest in Stockholm". The Independent. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
    176. Clark, Bryan (30 November 2016). "Spotify is using billboards to call users out on their questionable listening habits". The Next Web. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
    177. Jardine, Alexandra (28 November 2016). "'Thanks 2016, It's Been Weird,' Says Spotify in Biggest-Ever Global Campaign". Creativity. Crain Communications. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
    178. "Spotify expands with World Trade Center move". Agence France-Presse via ABS-CBN. 15 February 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
    179. 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. Axel Springer SE. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
    180. "Mabrook! Spotify is Deepening Our Commitment to Arab Culture Around the Globe". 14 November 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
    181. Weiner, Natalie (12 October 2015). "Ed Sheeran's 'Thinking Out Loud' Becomes First Song to Hit 500 Million Spotify Streams". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    182. "Leaning power: Spotify names its most streamed track of all time". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. 12 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    183. Ingham, Tim (7 April 2016). "The biggest artist on Spotify is a shareholder in Tidal". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    184. Jones, Rhian (18 May 2016). "Drake is Spotify's most popular artist in history ... and right now". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
    185. Ingham, Tim (1 December 2016). "Drake finally loses his Spotify crown to record-breaking The Weeknd". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
    186. 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.
    187. Kaufman, Gil (16 December 2016). "Drake's One Dance Is First Song to Reach 1 Billion Plays on Spotify". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
    188. "Taylor Swift sets records for Spotify streams, YouTube views". The Associated Press. 26 August 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
    189. "Spotify hits milestone with 1 million subscribers". BBC News. BBC. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    190. Van Grove, Jennifer (21 September 2011). "Spotify Surpasses 2 Million Paying Subscribers". Mashable. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    191. Sanburn, Josh (16 August 2012). "Spotify is Growing — But Why Isn't It Growing Faster?". Time. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    192. 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.
    193. Sloan, Paul (29 May 2014). "Spotify: Growing like mad, yet so far to go". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    194. Brustein, Joshua (22 May 2014). "Spotify Hits 10 Million Paid Users. Now Can It Make Money?". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    195. "15 for '15!". Spotify. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    196. "20 Million Reasons to Say Thanks". Spotify. 10 June 2015. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    197. Singleton, Micah (21 March 2016). "Spotify hits 30 million subscribers". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    198. Kahn, Jordan (14 September 2016). "Spotify hits 40 million paid subscriber milestone, outpacing Apple Music's growth". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    199. Murgia, Madhumita (20 June 2016). "Spotify crosses 100m users". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
    200. "Spotify added 8 million paid subscribers thanks to family plans". Engadget. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
    201. Spangler, Todd (23 March 2018). "Spotify Stream Fraud: 2 Million People Used Illicit Apps to Block Ads". Variety. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
    202. 202.0 202.1 202.2 "Is Spotify really worth $23bn?". BBC News. 1 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
    203. "Spotify files to go public as it discloses subscriber growth and heavy losses". The Verge. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
    204. 204.0 204.1 Castillo, Michelle (28 February 2018). "Spotify files to go public, lost $1.5 billion last year". CNBC. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
    205. Statt, Nick; Singleton, Micah (16 March 2017). "Spotify will restrict some albums to its paid tier". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
    206. Wilhelm, Parker (16 March 2017). "Spotify may soon require a Premium account to listen to certain albums". TechRadar. Future plc. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
    207. Summers, Nick (16 March 2017). "Spotify might delay album releases for 'free' users". Engadget. AOL. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
    208. 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.
    209. Titcomb, James (4 April 2017). "Spotify to restrict albums to paying subscribers for first time". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
    210. Hern, Alex (4 April 2017). "Spotify to host top stars' albums for premium subscribers only". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
    211. Schneider, Marc (20 April 2017). "Following Universal Deal, Spotify Locks Down Indies in Long-Term Licensing Pact With Merlin". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
    212. Ingraham, Nathan (20 April 2017). "Spotify lets thousands of indie labels limit free streaming". Engadget. AOL. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
    213. Salinas, Sara (2018-04-03). "Spotify loses some of its initial heat as it drops from its opening price of $165.90". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
    214. "Spotify Acquires The Echo Nest". Spotify. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    215. 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.
    216. Constine, Josh (24 June 2015). "Spotify Buys Beats' Analytics Provider Seed Scientific". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
    217. Vanian, Jonathan (24 June 2015). "Why Spotify just bought a data science startup". Fortune. Time Inc. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
    218. "Spotify acquires CrowdAlbum". Spotify. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
    219. Goldman, Joshua (27 April 2016). "Spotify snaps up photo-video aggregator for concertgoers". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
    220. "Spotify Acquires Sonalytic". Spotify. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    221. Perez, Sarah (7 March 2017). "Spotify acquires audio detection startup Sonalytic". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    222. Ingham, Tim (27 March 2017). "Spotify acquires MightyTV. Can its founder fix Daniel Ek's advertising woes?". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
    223. Perez, Sarah (26 April 2017). "Spotify acquires blockchain startup Mediachain to solve music's attribution problem". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
    224. LeFebvre, Rob (26 April 2017). "Spotify's latest move shows it's trying to get royalties right". Engadget. AOL. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
    225. Russell, Jon (18 May 2017). "Spotify buys AI startup Niland to develop its music personalization and recommendations". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
    226. 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.
    227. 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.
    228. Krishna, Swapna (17 November 2017). "Spotify acquires Soundtrap, an online music recording studio". Engadget. Oath Inc. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
    229. Perez, Sarah. "Spotify acquires music licensing platform Loudr". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
    230. Lee, Wendy (6 February 2019). "Spotify acquires New York podcasting companies Gimlet and Anchor". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
    231. Template:Cite web title=Spotify acquires another podcast network to keep building its original show catalog
    232. Lempel, Eric (28 January 2015). "PlayStation, Meet Spotify". Sony. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    233. Lempel, Eric (30 March 2015). "Spotify Launches on PlayStation Music Today". Sony. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
    234. "Spotify Partners with SXSW 2017 to Enhance Music Discovery". Spotify. 1 March 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    235. "Spotify To Partner with WNYC Studios to Offer Exclusive Two Week Window for New Season of Top Podcast 2 Dope Queens with Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson". Spotify. 13 March 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    236. Rossignol, Derrick (13 March 2017). "Spotify lands '2 Dope Queens' and other hit WNYC podcasts". Engadget. AOL. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    237. "Spotify and Waze Partner to Enhance Your In-Car Listening Experience". Spotify. 14 March 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    238. Nieva, Richard (14 March 2017). "Spotify gives you driving directions through Waze". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
    239. Warren, Tom (2 October 2017). "Microsoft retires Groove Music service, partners with Spotify". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
    240. Coghlan, Claire (13 November 2017). "Pat McGrath signs singer Maggie Lindemann, unveils new beauty products sold through Spotify". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
    241. Russell, Jon (8 December 2017). "Spotify and Tencent agree to swap stakes in their music businesses". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
    242. Sawers, Paul (8 December 2017). "Spotify and China's Tencent invest in each other as part of 'strategic collaboration'". VentureBeat. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
    243. "Tencent Music, Spotify's strategic partner in China, is valued at over $12B – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
    244. Broussard, Mitchel (1 February 2018). "Discord Desktop Apps Gain Deep Spotify Integration, Including Real-Time 'Listen Along' Feature". MacRumors. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
    245. Perez, Sarah (11 April 2018). "Spotify and Hulu launch a discounted entertainment bundle for $12.99 per month". TechCrunch. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
    246. 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.
    247. 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. Vox Media. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
    248. 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.
    249. Raymundo, Oscar (1 July 2016). "Apple slams Spotify for criticizing the App Store as anti-competitive". Macworld. International Data Group. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
    250. Clover, Juli (26 August 2016). "Spotify Punishing Artists Who Offer Apple Music Exclusives [Updated]". MacRumors. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
    251. Campbell, Mikey (5 May 2017). "Spotify, others file EU complaint over Apple and Google app store practices". AppleInsider. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
    252. Miller, Chance (6 May 2017). "Spotify again accuses Apple of abusing its size & acting as a 'gatekeeper'". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
    253. Fioretti, Julia (10 May 2017). "EU to tackle complaints over tech companies' trading practices". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
    254. 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.
    255. "Spotify officially releases first version of its Apple Watch app". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
    256. Rossignol, Joe. "Spotify on Apple's Response to App Store Dispute: 'Every Monopolist Will Suggest They Have Done Nothing Wrong'". www.macrumors.com. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
    257. "Penn State WebAccess Secure Login:". webaccess.psu.edu.
    258. Schonfeld, Erick (1 September 2010). "Foursquare, Scribd, And Spotify To Be Dubbed 2011 Technology Pioneers At Davos". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
    259. Saint, Nick (1 September 2010). "Foursquare, SecondMarket, Knewton, And Spotify Honored By World Economic Forum". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
    260. McCarthy, Paul X. (17 August 2017). "Why Spotify could soon dominate music the way Google does search". The Next Web. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
    261. Plaugic, Lizzie (7 December 2015). "Spotify's Year in Music shows just how little we pay artists for their music". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
    262. "Thom Yorke pulls albums from Spotify". BBC News. BBC. 15 July 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
    263. Alter, Charlotte (3 November 2014). "Taylor Swift Just Removed Her Music From Spotify". Time. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
    264. Rossignol, Derrick (8 December 2017). "Thom Yorke's Solo Albums Are Finally Streaming On Spotify, Which He Famously Hates". Uproxx. Uproxx Media Group. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
    265. "Taylor Swift's Music Returning to Spotify & Other Streaming Services Tonight". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. 8 June 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
    266. "What Streaming Music Services Pay". Information is Beautiful. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
    267. Singleton, Micah (15 June 2017). "Spotify now has 140 million active users". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
    268. "Spotify Premium APK". modfyp. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
    269. Karp, Hannah (3 December 2015). "Coldplay to Headline Super Bowl Halftime Show". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved 24 December 2016. (subscription required)
    270. Luckerson, Victor (24 November 2014). "Beyoncé's Latest Album Is Finally on Spotify". Time. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
    271. Carr, Austin (15 February 2012). "Why Spotify Turned Down Adele's 21". Fast Company. Mansueto Ventures. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
    272. Ingham, Tim (3 February 2015). "Major labels keep 73% of Spotify Premium payouts – Report". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
    273. Masnick, Mike (5 February 2015). "Yes, Major Record Labels Are Keeping Nearly All The Money They Get From Spotify, Rather Than Giving It To Artists". Techdirt. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
    274. Buskirk, Eliot Van (21 June 2012). "David Lowery Might Be Right About Some Things, But He's Wrong About Streaming, Money, and Artists". Evolver.fm. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
    275. Strauss, Matthew (10 May 2018). "Spotify Removes R. Kelly and XXXTentacion From Its Playlists". Pitchfork. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
    276. Minsker, Evan; Yoo, Noah (1 June 2018). "Spotify Walks Back Controversial "Hateful Conduct" Policy, Adds XXXTentacion to Major Playlist". Pitchfork. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
    277. Dean, Dan Cairns and Jonathan (27 May 2018). "Where will Spotify's censorship end?". The Times.
    278. Deleon, Nicholas (30 March 2011). "Spotify Becomes Latest High Profile Inadvertent Malware Distributor". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
    279. Gibbs, Samuel (28 May 2014). "Spotify hack leads to rollout of new Android app". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
    280. Warren, Tom (21 August 2015). "Spotify's new privacy policy generates unnecessary outrage". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
    281. Peoples, Glenn (19 August 2015). "How 'Playola' Is Infiltrating Streaming Services: Pay for Play Is 'Definitely Happening'". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
    282. Ingham, Tim (31 August 2016). "Spotify is making its own records... and putting them on playlists". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
    283. Gensler, Andy (7 July 2017). "Spotify on Non-Existent Artist Allegations: 'We Do Not and Have Never Created Fake Artists'". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
    284. "Spotify under fire for not removing all Alex Jones podcasts". Retrieved 2018-08-06.
    285. "Win or Lose, the Alex Jones Lawsuit Will Redefine Free Speech". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
    286. Hern, Alex (2018-08-06). "Facebook, Apple and Spotify ban Infowars' Alex Jones". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
    287. Wang, Amy S. (2019-02-12). "'Spotify Teardown' Is the Book Spotify Didn't Want Published". Retrieved 2019-02-13.

    External links[edit]


    This article "Spotify" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.