Spotify is a Swedish music streaming service. It was founded by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in 2006 as a response to rapt illegal music file sharing. However, it wouldn't go public until October 2008 after Ek had pleaded with major record labels to open catalogs and allow buying at a 20% stake. As of the third quarter of 2021, they have 381 million total users with 172 of those choosing to pay for premium,[1] making them the most-subscribed music streaming service.[2]
History[]
Photo of Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, the founders of Spotify.
In April 2006, the idea of Spotify was first proposed. Daniel Ek, a serial entrepreneur who had previously been a CEO at Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon of Tradedoubler had thrown the idea around after remembering the rampant abuse of music piracy in the industry. Not knowing a title, they decided to toss around title ideas with Steven Bertoni of Forbes revealing:[3]
| “ | ...when Ek misheard one of Lorentzon’s suggestions. He typed the word “Spotify” into Google. There were zero hits. | ” |
It would take until October 7, 2008, for the services to be publicly released, being free by invitation only, along with a paid subscription in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, France, and Spain. In 2009, the option of a free account without invitation was made available for the UK as a test run, which would later come to be adapted into their business model. This allowed them to see its benefit, with a sudden increase in users, so they launched onto the Apple store to continue that growth.
They would also introduce Sean Parker of Napster onto the board,[4] who had joined due to the regret he had of making the website that upended the music industry.[5] Despite spreading across Europe rapidly, they would not come to the United States until July 14, 2011, with help from Sean Parker, who secured deals with the major record labels.[6] This would prove a good decision, getting 1.4 million users in the U.S. by August of the same year.[7] However, it soon limited free users accounts in the United States, only allowing ten hours of playback and not being able to listen to one song 5+ times, but got removed quickly.
Photo of one of their 2015 created charts, Top 50 USA, on December 4th, 2021.
In 2015 they would decide to uphaul the model and rebrand themselves to attract younger generations. They chose to switch to more "flashy" colors, like neon green which included the logo they use today. This also included the UI rebranding of the desktop app, like making charts including the "Top 50" and adding lyrics to songs. Finally, they decided to become more user engaged with the Wrapped campaign, live concerts at their studios and promoting with other artists.
Although initially wanting to join the stock market in 2017, raising funds the previous year, it would take until 2018 for the first initial public offering (IPO). The initial marketing cap on its' closing day for the market was $26.5 billion at 158.90 per stock.[8]
Availability of Spotify around the globe as of November 29th, 2021.
On February 22, 2021, they decided to expand internationally, go out to 80+ new markets, and add 36 new languages.[9] This mostly focused on countries in Africa and South America, which previously had little to no access. The countries included were Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Tanzania among others.
Taylor Swift and artists' pay[]
In the summer of 2014, Big Machine Records on behalf of Swift asked Spotify to keep her music off of the free tier, only making it subscription-based. With Spotify denying it not long after, Swift decided to remove her entire catalog from Spotify due to the tiny amount of royalty paid towards artists, especially with the free tier. Although this was the first time it had all blown up, she had before pulled Red from Spotify upon its initial release saying "Music is art; art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for."
This prompted Spotify to try and "recruit" her back by raising royalty rates (in part to keep other artists' from following her lead) and using social media for fans. Although this had happened before, most notably with Radiohead and The Beatles, this was the first time such a campaign had been used.
On June 9, 2017, following 1989 having over 10 million worldwide sales, she added all her music back to streaming platforms including Spotify. Although critics lamented that Katy Perry, of which she had a long-standing feud following the back-up dancer's drama, had recently released a new album and that was the reason.
Features[]
Spotify Wrapped[]
Logo of 2020's Spotify Wrapped.
Starting in 2016, Spotify ran a marketing campaign that lets users of the app view their data over the year. It is generally released in early December, frequently in the first week. The main categories that have been included in every rendition have been your top five musicians, the top five songs they have listened to, and their favorite genres based on their listening history.
The campaign has led to millions promoting Spotify, increasing their app ranking, and giving them free advertising.
Podcasts[]
Uploaded by users using an RSS, a web feed for the audio part of a news aggregator (a host web application). Users will then go to Spotify for Podcasters, make an account, and paste the link from the RSS feed, which will confirm. This takes a few hours, but will then stream globally on the app.
Although most podcasts are free for view listening, some are subscription-based and independent from Spotify premium. There is a subscription link in the podcasts or shows description, which will prompt the users with banking details to purchase it and activates it on Spotify.
Listening[]
Although you can simply press the play button, and pause at any point, there are different features independent from it that can "improve" that experience. To see your listening history or your past 50 songs, you can go to the queue and see recently played. Listening offline to music is a premium limited feature, but you have to download the album (or songs), playlists, or podcasts beforehand. The free version is extremely limited compared to that - only allowing podcasts. The maximum amount you can download is 10,000 different pieces, regardless of length.
Your library is a collection of all your likes and playlists to later be used. To add something you either create a playlist and add songs, or like a playlist, song, and/or album. You can also follow any podcast.
Crossfade, Shuffle play, and Equalizer[]
Crossfade is a feature that is open to any user and can be found in advanced settings. It eliminates the silence between tracks and fades the ending of one song to the next in line.
Shuffling mixes up what you play next as long as it is a playlist or song, not following the order of songs placed in a playlist or album. If you switch it off, it will automatically return to the set original line-up on the next song that plays. It is automatically turned on for free-based users, with the only exception being Spotify playlists made for you by them.
Equalizing a song, found under settings, lets you adjust the bass and treble (or high notes). It is only available for mobile users and can depend on the manufacturer at that. The only exception if you turn this on is if you are using Spotify Connect.
Spotify Connect[]
This feature allows you to remotely control listening from one device to another, as long as they are compatible and on the same WiFi network. Regardless of what type of device you are during, you can see the "speaker" button on the bottom-right which will connect to any device, automatically playing the song you were on.
Criticism[]
Podcasts' racism[]
Through the flexible allowing of podcasts, with any user being allowed to, it has spawned racist content. This included Holocaust denial, white supremacy, and far-right theories. With hour-long episodes including the content, it was also hard to find for reviewers. However, some additionally criticized Spotify for the blatant ones including explicit slurs found in the titles and descriptions thereof. Along with that, some artwork included traditionally white supremacy symbols.[10]
One creator of such content, who discussed the so-called "beauty" of white supremacy and read-aloud readings of antisemitism leaders like Adolf Hitler, managed to bypass many of the regulations Spotify had put in place. This creator also included manifestos of Dylann Roof and swastika symbols, but managed to remain on the platform for a long time until Sky News did an investigation.
Due to the heavy backlash, Spotify received after the article was published, they had to remove over 7 days worth of content along with announcing they were in the making of technology that would quickly identify hate material. A spokesperson of Spotify said in response to this:[11]
| “ | Spotify prohibits content on our platform which expressly and principally advocates or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability. The content in question has been removed for violating our Hate Content policy. | ” |
System Vulnerability[]
2009[]
Around 2009, a bug in Spotify's protocol was found by a group of hackers who managed to get sensitive data like a compilation of users' passwords, your email, birth date, and gender, among others.[12] This opened an investigation, finding that the vulnerability had been there for years until the aforementioned situation was found. Up until then, Spotify had been using Google's "password hashes" which was a supposedly better way of keeping passwords secure. However, you could reverse engineer the protocol if you knew the username of the user you were targeting.
2011[]
Due to having ads so they could profit off the free tier, and at the time being hosted by a third-party in some cases, some ads contained hidden malware.[13] If you used the browser version of Spotify it was affected. The main concern was this hack was the exploit kit to make them wasn't paywalled nor obscure Blackhole exploit kit. In the case the user did not have anti-malware software that would detect such a thing, it would do a series of high volume spam runs. It was reported in 2012 that as high as 91% of all web threats were due to this kit.
2014[]
On Tuesday of May 2014, the internal system of Spotify was hacked by an unknown user.[14] Although only targeting one user (who was notified thereafter), it showed the vulnerability of the app as it happened many times before. This prompted Spotify to force Android users to update Spotify, showing a warning that the previous version was no longer available.[15] It was never confirmed, but technology experts believed there was deeper reasoning for updating it, as one user would not have prompted such an update. They suspected the method was re-usable and broadly applicable, affecting all older versions, allowing any semi-experienced hacker to target users they wished.
2020[]
In the largest ever recorded hack on Spotify, over 300,000 accounts personal data was open to hackers during the summer of 2020.[16] A VPN (Virtual Private Network) company entitled VPN Mentor did an investigation into "deep web" bases. This made them find an Elasticsearch database containing upwards of 380 million records, including those of Spotify users. The company admitted they might have used stolen credentials from other such databases to access Spotify accounts, leading to identity theft.
The possible timeline ranged from July 3rd to the 21st, in which the company contacted Spotify, and explored the database to shut it down. Furthermore, Spotify sent out a notice to users regardless of the platform if Spotify believed they had been affected by the breach. The message asked them to reset their password so they would be safe.[17]
Playlist tampering[]
In nearly successive days it was released that Spotify had messed with their playlists in multiple ways. The first was an article from Bloomberg that reported that had 'buried' promotion of musicians (often via playlists) who extensively worked with its competitors. This included Apple Music and Tidal.[18]
Katy Perry, a "victim" of how Spotify tampers with playlists.
A prime example of this according to critics is Katy Perry.[19] She had released the song "Rise" - a comeback single - which would be featured in the 2016 Olympics, one of the biggest events for promoting music. It was first released on Apple Music and its subsidiary iTunes, but when it eventually came to Spotify, it was never released on any playlists. This was despite it being enough for Today's Top Hit, and subsequently "flopped" on the charts, especially in Europe.
Spotify later responded to the allegations saying that burying their names in the search engine was "unequivocally false",[20] What most noticed was how it didn't directly respond to playlist tampering, only denying searching.
The second allegation was brought forth by Music Business Worldwide saying that they had paid producers to create tracks which they would take the masters from - only paying for the tracks.[21] These tracks then appear on Spotify under fake names which would be put under jazz, chill, and peaceful piano playlists. Thus, they receive a lot of money without having to pay for rights.
It also alleges at least five of these tracks had over 500,000 players - and one with over a million.
Lawsuits[]
Employee Misclassification[]
On March 31, 2020, plaintiff Matthew Elias, who worked at Spotify previously, filed a class action lawsuit against Spotify for misclassification of job title.[22] The allegation states that he was classified as a non-exempt employee, then changed into an independent contractor without any compensation or role. It was also stated while he was classified as non-exempt he did not receive the benefits of that tile under the Fair Labor Standards Acts.
Almost immediately after the lawsuit was filed, Spotify responded by asking to remove the place where it would be held. This is most likely because of AB5, a law exclusive to California that aims to curb contractor abuses from large companies. The case is currently pending review.[23]
Songwriting Licenses[]
Around 2016, Ferrick v. Spotify was filed, alleging mechanical licenses for songwriting were never paid by Spotify. Plaintiffs David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick filed similar lawsuits, eventually combining, which additionally stated those mechanical licenses were never present on musical works they should have been on.[24]
Due to the multiple cases shown between 2012 and 2017, it was quickly decided the following year that Spotify would settle, paying over $43 million in damages. Although Spotify disagreed saying it believed "factual and legal allegations…are incorrect."[25] Any songwriter not under National Music Publishers’ Association (NPMA) who had their music uploaded, and contends Spotify did so without a license, was eligible to be reimbursed.[26]
Swift's records[]
Taylor Swift, the person who broke multiple records with Spotify.
- On November 12, 2021, Swift's album Red (Taylor's Version) caused Swift to break a record for the most streamed album from a female artist in a day. The album received 90.8 million streams, breaking a record previously held by her with Folklore.[27]
- Swift broke the record for most streamed album by any artist in one day, Midnights, with over 184 million streams on October 21, 2022. She then broke this record a third time with her 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department, which gained 313 million first-day streams on April 19, 2024.
- With the release of Red (Taylor's Version), Swift broke the record for most-streamed female artist in a single day with 122.9 million streams.[27]With the release of Midnights, she broke not only this record but also the record for most-streamed artist in a single day with over 228 million streams on October 21, 2022. She has since broken the record for most-streamed artist in a single day twice, for her 2023 release, 1989 (Taylor's Version) with over 259.6 million streams on October 27, 2023, and for her 2024 double album The Tortured Poets Department, gaining 380 million streams on April 19, 2024.
- Swift held the record for 'the biggest streaming month by a female artist' on November 2021, with the release of Red (Taylor's Version), with an accumulation of 1.45 billion streams alone in that month. She broke the record previously held by Olivia Rodrigo on June 2021, with 1.1 billion streams.
- "Look What You Made Me Do" was the most streamed song in a single day (including first-day record), set on August 29, 2017.[28] It was later surpassed multiple times by BTS, with "Butter" & etc, and then Adele who had 20 million for "Easy on Me".[29]
- In 2021, she got over 9.16 billion streams, breaking the record for 'the biggest streaming year by a female artist' previously held by Billie Eilish in 2019 with 7 billion streams. This was later broken by herself in 2022 thanks to her 2022 release, Midnights, with over 13.97 billion streams. This was once again, broken by herself in 2023 thanks to her 2023 releases, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version) with over 26,1 billion streams, nearly doubling her overall streams in 2022 and surpasses the amount of streams she's earned in 2 of the preceding years combined.
- As of January 8, 2022, Taylor officially surpassed Rihanna as the second most streamed female artist (All credits).
- As of September 9, 2022, Taylor officially surpassed Ariana Grande as #1 most streamed female artist (Lead credits).
- Taylor officially broke the record for the 'most-streamed album in a single day in Spotify history' on the 22nd of October 2022, through the release of her tenth studio album Midnights, accumulating 161,571,832 streams (184.6 million including the 3am edition tracks) on its first day. She broke the record previously held by Drake with "Certified Lover Boy", accumulating 154,9 million streams on its first day.
- Swift holds the #3 and #4 biggest single day stream peaks of all time on the global Spotify chart.
- “Anti-Hero” (17.4M) broke the record for the biggest female song debut on Global Spotify in 2022 surpassing BLACKPINK’s “Pink Venom” (7.93M).
- "Fortnight" (25M) broke the record for biggest song debut on Global Spotify of all time.
- The Tortured Poets Department became the countdown page with the most pre-saves in Spotify history.
- Swift broke the record for biggest streaming day for any artist in Spotify history, with 380 million streams on April 19, 2024. She's also the first artist to cross 200 million overall.
- Swift is the artist with the most albums exceeding 7 billion streams with 4 albums.
- Swift had the biggest album debut of 2023 with 1989 (Taylor's Version) and the third biggest album debut of all time, just behind her own releases, Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department.
- The Tortured Poets Department became the fastest album in Spotify history to reach 500 million, 700 million, and then 1 billion streams, surpassing Swift's own Midnights.
- "Fortnight" became the first song in Spotify history to surpass 50 million filtered streams in its first 3 days.
Top Streamed Songs[]
| # | Song | Streams |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Cruel Summer" | 2,574,796,410 |
| 2 | "Blank Space" | 1,941,059,331 |
| 3 | "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" | 1,750,767,908 |
| 4 | "Anti-Hero" | 1,699,689,754 |
| 5 | "Lover" | 1,585,125,819 |
| 6 | "Shake It Off" | 1,507,090,865 |
| 7 | "Cardigan" | 1,466,429,156 |
| 8 | "Style" | 1,297,524,055 |
| 9 | "August" | 1,291,398,715 |
| 10 | "Don't Blame Me" | 1,252,018,320 |
| 11 | "Look What You Made Me Do" | 1,228,990,194 |
| 12 | "Delicate" | 1,064,702,177 |
| 13 | "Wildest Dreams" | 1,011,470,748 |
| 14 | "You Need To Calm Down" | 996,782,990 |
| 15 | "Love Story" | 939,755,769 |
Last Update: November 4, 2024
Top Streamed Albums[]
| # | Album | Streams |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lover | 11,571,612,149 |
| 2 | Midnights | 9,911,645,283 |
| 3 | Reputation | 8,743,134,007 |
| 4 | 1989 | 8,585,055,867 |
| 5 | Folklore | 8,524,770,767 |
| 6 | The Tortured Poets Department | 6,009,245,116 |
| 7 | Red (Taylor's Version) | 5,649,028,288 |
| 8 | Evermore | 5,164,771,573 |
| 9 | 1989 (Taylor's Version) | 4,559,380,020 |
| 10 | Fearless (Taylor's Version) | 4,408,454,165 |
| 11 | Red | 3,579,182,278 |
| 12 | Speak Now | 3,352,396,648 |
| 13 | Speak Now (Taylor's Version) | 2,836,192,106 |
| 14 | Fearless | 2,496,753,764 |
| 15 | Taylor Swift | 1,499,908,087 |
Last Update: November 4, 2024
Trivia[]
- On November 29, 2023, the progress bar on most of Swift's songs was changed to celebrate her becoming the top global artist of the year. Spotify implemented a star icon on the progress bar replacing the dot, and the bar was in the color of the song's era. The custom animation applied to both the original releases and "Taylor's Version" re-recordings, although not to a few specific songs and collaborations like "Renegade", "Two Is Better Than One", and "Both of Us". This animation has since been removed and the progress bars are back to normal.
References[]
- ↑ "Spotify Technology S.A. Announces Financial Results for Third Quarter 2021". October 27, 2021. https://investors.spotify.com/financials/press-release-details/2021/Spotify-Technology-S.A.-Announces-Financial-Results-for-Third-Quarter-2021/default.aspx.
- ↑ "Which Streaming Service Has the Most Subscriptions?". March 3, 2021. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/which-streaming-service-has-the-most-subscriptions/.
- ↑ Bertoni, Steven. "Spotify's Daniel Ek: The Most Important Man In Music". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/01/04/spotifys-daniel-ek-the-most-important-man-in-music/?sh=2c4dbbe664ca.
- ↑ "Sean Parker — $16.9 billion". https://labusinessjournal.com/wealthiest-angelenos/2021/sean-parker/2155/#:~:text=In%202010%2C%20he%20invested%20%2415%20million%20in%20Spotify%2C,earning%20a%20%249.9%20billion%20payday%2C%20according%20to%20Pitchbook,.
- ↑ "With a little help from his friends". October 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20150121060241/http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/10/sean-parker-201010.
- ↑ Wired. https://www.wired.com/2011/07/spotify-launches-in-the-u-s-at-last/.
- ↑ "Spotify’s U.S. Score So Far: 1.4 Million Users, 175,000 Paying Customers". August 8, 2011. https://allthingsd.com/20110808/spotifys-u-s-score-so-far-1-4-million-users-175000-paying-customers/.
- ↑ "Spotify Revenue and Usage Statistics (2021)". November 11, 2018. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/spotify-statistics/.
- ↑ "Spotify Expands International Footprint, Bringing Audio to 80+ New Markets". Spotify Expands International Footprint, Bringing Audio to 80+ New Markets. https://newsroom.spotify.com/2021-02-22/spotify-expands-international-footprint-bringing-audio-to-80-new-markets/.
- ↑ "Antisemitism, racism and white supremacist material found in podcasts on Spotify, investigation finds". EU Leader. http://euleader.org/tech/antisemitism-racism-and-white-supremacist-material-in-podcasts-on-spotify-investigation-finds/. Retrieved 2021-12-6.
- ↑ Khalad, Fatma (December 3, 2021). "Spotify Removes 150 Hours of Podcasts Containing Holocaust Denial, Far Right Conspiracies". Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/spotify-removes-150-hours-podcasts-containing-holocaust-denial-far-right-conspiracies-1655923.
- ↑ Leyden, John (March 4, 2009). "Spotify breach creates password hack risk". The Register. https://www.theregister.com/2009/03/04/spotify_breach/.
- ↑ Deleon, Nicholas (March 30, 2011). "Spotify Becomes Latest High Profile Inadvertent Malware Distributor". Tech Crunch. https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/30/spotify-becomes-latest-high-profile-inadvertent-malware-distributor/.
- ↑ Gibbs, Samuel (May 28, 2014). "Spotify hack leads to rollout of new Android app". Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/28/spotify-hack-android-app.
- ↑ "Important Notice to Our Users". Spotify. https://web.archive.org/web/20161218132234/https://news.spotify.com/us/2014/05/27/important-notice-to-our-users/. Retrieved 2021-12-7.
- ↑ "Report: Spotify Targeted in Potential Fraud Scheme". VPN Mentor. https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/report-spotify-scam/. Retrieved 2021-12-7.
- ↑ "300,000 Spotify Accounts Reportedly Hacked: What You Need To Know". Screen Rant. https://screenrant.com/spotify-accounts-data-stolen-major-hack-explained. Retrieved 2021-12-7.
- ↑ Shaw, Lucas (August 26, 2016). "Spotifyis burying musicians for their Apple deals". Gloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-26/spotify-said-to-retaliate-against-artists-with-apple-exclusives.
- ↑ Ingham, Tim (August 29, 2016). "KATY PERRY KNOWS EXACTLY HOW MUCH SPOTIFY IS ‘PUNISHING’ APPLE EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS". Music Business Worldwide. https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/katy-perry-knows-exactly-how-much-spotify-is-punishing-apple-exclusive-artists/.
- ↑ Murphy, David (August 27, 2016). "Ink an Apple Music Deal, Get Penalized by Spotify?". PC Mag. https://in.pcmag.com/streaming-music-services/107094/ink-an-apple-music-deal-get-penalized-by-spotify.
- ↑ Ingham, Tim (August 31, 2016). "Spotify is making its' own records..and putting them on playlists". Music Business World. https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-is-creating-its-own-recordings-and-putting-them-on-playlists/.
- ↑ "Employee brings class action lawsuit for misclassification". Work Place Rights. https://workplacerightslaw.com/class-action-news/spotify-class-action-lawsuit-misclassification/. Retrieved 2021-12-8.
- ↑ "Matthew Elias v. Spotify USA Inc. et al". Uni Court. https://unicourt.com/case/pc-db5-elias-v-spotify-usa-inc-et-al-677646. Retrieved 2021-12-8.
- ↑ "How to Claim Your Piece of Spotify’s $43.5 Million Songwriter Settlement". Digital Music News. https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/08/08/spotify-songwriter-settlement/. Retrieved 2021-12-8.
- ↑ "Objections to proposed class action settlement agreement and notice of intent to appear" (PDF). SXSW. https://www.sxsw.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Musicians-Object-to-Proposed-Settlement-in-Ferrick-v.-Spotify-9.12.2017.pdf. Retrieved 2021-12-8.
- ↑ "Notice Of Pendency Of Class Action, Proposed Settlement and Hearing" (PDF). Spotify Publishing Settlement. https://www.spotifypublishingsettlement.com/Content/Documents/LFN.pdf. Retrieved 2021-12-8.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Willman, Chris (November 13, 2021). "Taylor Swift Breaks Two Spotify Records in One Day With Release of ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’". Variety. https://variety.com/2021/music/news/taylor-swift-breaks-spotify-record-red-taylors-version-streams-1235111709/.
- ↑ Savage, Mark (August 29, 2017). "Taylor Swiftly breaks four YouTube and Spotify records". BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41081026.
- ↑ "Easy On Me now Spotify's most-streamed song in a single day". Fox Business. 2021-12-2. https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/adele-easy-on-me-spotify-most-streamed-song-single-day.
Further reading[]
- Nickerson, Benjamin J. (2019) The Underlying Water: An Analysis of the Spotify Direct Listing
- Vonderau, Patrick (2017) The Spotify Effect: Digital Distribution and Financial Growth