Swedish streaming giant Spotify sits comfortably at the top of the music business. How did one small Swedish company made it all the way to the top of the music streaming business? In this article, we cover Spotify as it enters the last part of 2020 and prepares for this decade. Based in Stockholm and with corporate offices in New York City, founded in 2006, the company provides media services on demand via internet.
Spotify sits comfortably at the top of the music streaming business. With more than 130 million paid subscribers worldwide, the Stockholm-based company rules over Apple, Amazon, Tencent and Google. And while Apple has a slight advantage over Spotify in the US market, that gap is closing as the Swedish company partnered with many key acquisitions: DC Comics, Kim Kardashian, Michelle Obama and Joe Rogan are now on showcased in Spotify after securing millions of dollars in campaigns.
Spotify’s massive investment in podcasts, the evolution of radio will lure many listeners their way as the on-demand, take-it-with-you-anywhere-you-go format takes even a stronger foothold in a world where consumers shifted their habits after the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic and talent acquisition made Spotify’s New York Stock Exchange price soar.
In the Beginning, There Was The CD
How did a tech phenomenon —labeled by corporate lawyers as “piracy— from the mid-90s and early 2000s became an 11 billion dollar industry? Music streaming is now central for the music industry, just in 2019 it represented 56% of their revenues. Two decades ago, the idea of compiling your playlists and burning them into a CD so you could play them on your way to work was frowned upon by the music industry. When Shawn Fanning created Napster, he changed the music business forever. Steve Jobs decided to pick up where peer-to-peer failed, and created iTunes and the iPod. Within years, millions of music fans embraced the digital format, and the music industry was forced to evolve.
Freemium: Spotify’s Key to Success
The key to Spotify’s success is combining access to its content and offering its customers a premium version. While you could listen to Spotify for free, Spotify Premium offers a universe of possibilities, unlimited skips, no ads, and more features as the company incorporates other key features as it experiments in this growth stage. Getting to that point was no fun and games, as the company faced corporate lawyers, royalties charges, artists grievances, and managed to emerge strong.
For the rest of the year, and looking on as this decade begins, Spotify wants to focus not just in the music business, but in the entire audio spectrum so it can broaden its audience and widen its global lead on competitors.
New on Spotify:
Every friday, Spotify releases new music. Today Spotify releases a full album by Metallica, a singles by Calvin Harris, The Weeknd, Selena Gomez, Dua Lipa and many more.
