Spotify

**Spotify** (/ˈspɒtɪfaɪ/; Swedish: [ˈspɔ̂tːɪfaj]) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 422 million monthly active users, including 182 million paying subscribers, as of March 2022. Spotify is listed (through a Luxembourg City-domiciled holding company, **Spotify Technology S.A.**) on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.

Spotify offers digital copyright restricted recorded music and podcasts, including more than 82 million songs, from record labels and media companies. As a freemium service, basic features are free with advertisements and limited control, while additional features, such as offline listening and commercial-free listening, are offered via paid subscriptions. Spotify is currently available in 180+ countries, as of October 2021. Users can search for music based on artist, album, or genre, and can create, edit, and share playlists.

Spotify is available in most of Europe, as well as the Americas and Oceania, with a total availability in 184 markets. The service is available on most devices including Windows, macOS, and Linux computers, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, smart home devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Nest lines of products and digital media players like Roku.

Unlike physical or download sales, which pay artists a fixed price per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on the number of artist streams as a proportion of total songs streamed. It distributes approximately 70% of its total revenue to rights holders (often record labels), who then pay artists based on individual agreements. According to Ben Sisario of *The New York Times,* approximately 13,000 out of seven million artists on Spotify generated $50,000 or more in payments in 2020.

## History

Daniel Ek addressing Spotify staff in 2010
Spotify was founded in 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of Tradedoubler. According to Ek, the company's title was initially misheard from a name shouted by Lorentzon. Later they thought out a portmanteau of "spot" and "identify."

### Early international launches

Former Spotify headquarters in Stockholm
In February 2009, Spotify opened public registration for the free service tier in the United Kingdom. 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.

Spotify launched in the United States in July 2011, and offered a six-month, ad-supported trial period, during which new users could listen to an unlimited amount of music for free. In January 2012, the free trial periods began to expire, and limited users to ten hours of streaming each month and five plays per song. , However, using PC streaming, you would see a similar structure to what we see today, with you being able to play songs freely, but with ads every 4-7 songs depending on listening duration. Later that same year, in March, Spotify removed all limits on the free service tier indefinitely, Including mobile devices.

In April 2016, Ek and Lorentzon wrote an open letter to Swedish politicians, demanding action in three areas that they claimed hindered the company's ability to recruit top talent as Spotify grows, including access to flexible housing, better education in the programming and development fields, and stock options. Ek and Lorentzon wrote that to continue competing in a global economy, politicians needed to respond with new policies, or else thousands of Spotify jobs would be moved from Sweden to the United States.

In February 2017, Spotify announced expansion of its United States operations in Lower Manhattan, New York City, at 4 World Trade Center, adding approximately 1,000 new jobs and retaining 832 existing positions. The company's US headquarters are located in New York City's Flatiron District.

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

## Countries

Countries and regions that have Spotify

* Andorra
* Argentina
* Australia
* Austria
* Belgium
* Bolivia
* Brazil
* Bulgaria
* Canada
* Chile
* Colombia
* Costa Rica
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Dominican Republic
* Ecuador
* El Salvador
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Guatemala
* Honduras
* Hong Kong
* Hungary
* Iceland
* India
* Indonesia
* Ireland
* Israel
* Italy
* Japan
* Latvia
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malaysia
* Malta
* Mexico
* Monaco
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Nicaragua
* Norway
* Panama
* Paraguay
* Peru
* Philippines
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Russia
* Saudi Arabia
* Singapore
* Slovakia
* South Africa
* South Korea
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Taiwan
* Thailand
* Turkey
* United Arab Emirates
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Uruguay
* Vietnam