Spotify Technology

Spotify

PlayStation console exclusive

Swedish audio streaming service

Released: —
Platforms: Android BlackBerry OS ChromeOS Linux PlayStation 3 Symbian Windows macOS webOS
Genres: —
Developers: Spotify Technology
Publishers: —
Country: Sweden

About

Spotify is a Swedish freemium music streaming service provider founded in April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. As of March 2026, it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services, with over 788 million monthly active users comprising 306 million paying subscribers. Spotify is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.

Spotify offers DRM-protected audio content, including over 100 million songs, 8 million podcast titles, and 800,000 audiobook titles from record labels and media companies. Operating as a freemium service, the basic features are free with advertisements and limited control, while additional features, such as offline listening and commercial-free listening, are offered via paid subscriptions. Users can search for music based on artist, album, or genre, and can create, edit, and share playlists. It offers some social media features such as messaging, creating profiles, following friends, shared playlists, and creating listening parties called "Jams".

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

Spotify was founded in April 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. Conceived as a legal alternative to music piracy, the service launched in several European markets in October 2008 and in the United States in July 2011.

During the 2010s, Spotify expanded internationally and grew from a music-streaming service into a broader audio platform through podcasting, audiobooks and acquisitions. It became publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2018 through a direct public offering.

Reception

Spotify has attracted significant criticism since its 2008 launch. The primary point of criticism centers around what artists, music creators, and the media have described as "unsustainable" compensation. Unlike physical sales or legal downloads (both of which were the main medium of listening to music at the time), which pay artists a fixed amount per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on its "market share": the number of streams for their songs as a proportion of total songs streamed on the service. Spotify distributes approximately 70% of its total revenue to rights-holders, who will then pay artists based on their individual agreements.

Worldwide, 30,000 musicians have joined the organization UnionOfMusicians (UMAW). UMAW organized protests in 31 cities in March 2021 and its campaign #JusticeAtSpotify is demanding more transparency and a compensation of one cent per stream.