The Hustler's Digest StaffAre you interested in music and want to know about modern music streaming platforms? Read this article to know about the best audio streaming service known as Spotify and all its attributes including who owns Spotify.
Music is no longer restricted to CDs and albums, modern day music is available on cellphones in its original version. Technology has taken over all the fields of life and the music department has also evolved with it. Technology in the field of music has made it easy for the audience to listen to their favorite artists.
In the past decade, several streaming services have come into existence because of the growing use of technology. Audio streaming service provides users with access to music libraries. It is a kind of music library where users can find the majority of the songs anytime. This library has squeezed onto our phones and other devices so it becomes convenient for the listener to play his/her favorite song anytime and anywhere.
One such leading digital music streaming service is Spotify, where you can find millions of tracks by searching or by clicking on the recommendations provided by Spotify. Whether you want to listen to a specific song no matter which region the artist belongs to or what timeline the song falls into, Spotify contains almost the majority of the songs. It is not only about music and also provides you with several podcasts, thriller stories, interviews, etc.
In the age of Netflix and YouTube, Spotify is another streaming platform where you can find your favorite tracks in their original version. It provides you the quality streaming without excessive loading after every few seconds of the song. Spotify has not yet reached the stage of official self-production like Netflix but it does contain some videos in collaboration with the artists where they are being interviewed or talk about the song. Spotify did not restrict its access to only paying users like Netflix.
If you want to know about this leading streaming service known as “Spotify” and want to learn more about it. This article is answering all the queries regarding Spotify including the concept of Spotify, how it works, and who owns Spotify
What is Spotify?
Spotify is the most popular streaming service available. It gives you access to millions of songs from singers all around the globe. It came into existence to facilitate people so they can listen to music and is protected from piracy. On Spotify, one can make his or her personalized playlist. Every account can make its playlists and they can also be shared by different accounts. This way you can listen to songs recommended by others. Spotify has been branched to all sorts of audio tracks. The playlists are not only restricted to songs there are podcasts available on it too.
Spotify has its operational headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. It is convenient and appealing because you can access the content present on Spotify for free by signing up using an email address or you can also connect with Facebook. If you do not intend to subscribe for a premium right away you also get allowed to try it for free. Spotify is actively being used in more than 180 countries around the world with almost more than 400 million active monthly users.
Spotify can be obtained for free but the free Spotify will show ads from time to time. The upgraded version of Spotify is called “Spotify premium” and it offers music without any interruption of ads. The music of premium Spotify is of high quality compared to free Spotify. It does not matter if the music that you search for is old or new, most of the songs are most likely to be available on Spotify.
The songs on Spotify are saved in that specific account and not in the device. In this way, you can listen to the same saved playlist from another device too. You do not need to worry about the songs getting deleted or lost because as long as you can access the account you will have your songs saved.
How does Spotify work?
Spotify is a mobile application but can also be used on a PC browser. It is an audio streaming service that like any other app has its way to function
- You must make an account to be on Spotify which can be done by signing up on it after downloading the app on your device. This requires you to insert a valid email address and password.
- Spotify after signing in gives you two options: premium and free. The premium has more perks and it also offers a free trial period to check if it is worth subscribing to.
- Spotify gives a free choice to opt for any of the emails. You can also sync your Facebook account to make a Spotify account so that you do not have to come up with a separate account or come up with a different account for Spotify.
- Once you have your account created you do not need to rely on the app only. Spotify can be accessed through a browser.
- User is free to discover new music recommended by Spotify or search his/her own choice of songs. Music can be searched through the artist’s name as well.
- Spotify has music/songs recommended on the feed concerning different moods, trends, and genres. It also suggests more music depending on the music recently played or saved.
- Spotify will also suggest music based on the name you give to your playlist created. You can keep on adding more songs to your playlist by clicking on “add to your playlist”
- The outlook of Spotify is different on different devices. Spotify when used on a laptop broadens the Spotify feed compared to a phone or smartwatch.
- The sleep timer can also be set on Spotify which makes it convenient for the user to fall asleep without worrying about the music being turned on the entire time.
What does Spotify offer?
There are other streaming services available which include apple music, Youtube music, Amazon music, etc but Spotify due to some of its features stands out. These features are as follows:
Download your favorite songs:
Along with playing music on Spotify, it gives you access to download the song. This way you can enjoy the song even without wifi. This costs less than buying an album because you will only be downloading the songs which are in the playlist that you download whereas an album possesses all the songs of an artist. This feature is however only available for its premium users and not available for free users.
To download the playlist on your app you only need to click on that playlist and select the “download switch”. The whole playlist gets downloaded to your device. If someone wants only a single song to be downloaded he/she can create an album consisting of only one song and then download that album. The main purpose of the download feature is to give its user the facility to enjoy their favorite music even when there is no Wifi or mobile data available.
Free trial:
If you plan to attain a Spotify premium, it offers you a free trial period of one month. In this one-month trial, you can learn about the premium option thoroughly and then decide for yourself if you consider Spotify worth paying. You can analyze the premium subscription for free and find out if you want to pay for this app in the future to get a high-quality streaming facility. However, there is no contract between the user and Spotify premium. One can cancel his/her subscription anytime.
Spotify playlist:
One of the most liked features of Spotify is its playlist option. You can create as many playlists as you want depending on the genre of music or artist. People make separate playlists for parties, long drives, gym or to share a few songs with someone special. Spotify’s unique blend feature also generates a curated playlist based on the user’s music taste. Depending on the user’s liked artists and genres, Spotify comes up with more song options for its user to explore. Once you create a playlist, you are still allowed to add more songs later that you want to add to a particular playlist. The playlists suggested by Spotify include many songs that you play along with two or three more songs of the same category.
Edit your playlist:
Songs in your playlist can be added or removed depending on your choice of selection. One can also make any playlist public or private. You can make it public if you want to let other people reach out to your playlist. The private option will restrict others’ access to your playlist. You can also let other people add songs to your playlist with a collaborative feature in it. To use this collaborative feature one has to send a collaborative link to the person they want to collaborate with. You can also share your playlist with your friends with the share option. Apart from removing selective songs from your playlist, you can also delete the whole playlist if you want.
Group session:
Spotify along with sharing collaborative features also has a group session feature. The group session of Spotify allows a maximum of seven people to have their music party. In this session, everybody has an access to play a song of their own choice that the group listens to. This is a great way for people to socialize because it connects people even when they are at distant locations. Your activity on Spotify can be shared on any other social media site such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You also can follow your favorite artist to keep yourself connected to his/her music.
Multiple platforms:
Spotify is available on all the existing platforms, unlike apple music which is only available on iOS. All android, Microsoft windows, iOS, and even Xbox users can easily use Spotify. Spotify has also extended its access to Apple and smartwatches so that users can conveniently hear their favorite songs. Spotify free users are more facilitated on desktops as On desktops, they are not too limited compared to mobile devices. You can listen and choose any artist or playlist that you like. It will only come up with ads after every few songs so Spotify doesn’t restrict content from its free users.
If someone is interested in social features Spotify gives you access to song sharing and even checking out the activities of your friends on that same app. It can be easily accessed using the Spotify apps for iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac, including the Spotify web app available across all platforms.
Good audio quality:
While Spotify free provides you with the highest audio quality of only 160 kbps Spotify premium provides you with the high-quality audio of 320 kbps. You can also adjust your audio quality settings under the option of settings. Spotify with 320 kbps provides high-quality audio compared to other competitive streaming services.
Podcast:
Spotify is not only restricted to music and has included several podcasts. Spotify provides licensed tracks from all record labels to expand its music library and is the second-largest platform to listen to podcasts. This has provided content creators with a platform to reach their audience. The variety of podcasts is not limited to Spotify. It provides its users with access to more than 4 million podcasts. It also provides the facility for the artists to go live and conduct podcasts via “Spotify greenroom”.
Streams audio and video:
Spotify is not only an audio streaming service, it also streams videos. The video range is not so massive as compared to their audio range. Spotify is still enhancing the video streaming service because currently it is limited to a few podcasts. Audio streaming is available to all the countries that Spotify has reached but video streaming is still restricted to some of the regions.
Owner of Spotify
This audio-streaming service was co-founded by two Swedish businessmen Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in 2006. He approached several coders from his university, KTH, and asked them to create Spotify. Daniel Ek has 47 million shares in the corporation while Martin Lorentzon owns 24 million shares. It was Daniel Ek’s idea to create a digital music streaming service. He wanted to create an advanced platform where people can listen to the original music with little payment or ads. 2006 was the time when file-sharing was a very widespread service and music was being downloaded for free which was illegal. He wanted to distribute the music legally so that audiences and music industries both benefit from it.
Martin Lorentzon was an active investor in the whole process and was the CEO of Spotify till 2013. For this reason, he has the highest voting rights at 43.3% While Daniel Ek has voting rights at almost 31.9%. Daniel Ek became the CEO of Spotify in 2013 and is still the CEO. He is also a founding member of the company Prima Materia. Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon were then joined by further institutional stockholders including Sony Music Entertainment, Tencent Music Entertainment, Baillie Gifford, and Morgan Stanley.
Baillie Gifford is an investment management firm and the third largest stake-holders of Spotify with 11.8%. Another stakeholder includes one of the biggest music companies of Sony Music Entertainment. Spotify is Sony Music Entertainment’s official streaming music provider and Sony started a deal with Spotify in 2013. Tencent Music Entertainment is a music company and publisher of one of the biggest video games Player Unknowns Battle Grounds also known as PUBG. Morgan Stanley is a financial services company and multinational investment management.
How does Spotify earn money?
Spotify provides its users with free and premium services. It is a legal service to free music from pirated or free use. Spotify can be used for free and via subscription though the free service is a money-saving premium Spotify has its perks. The free service is supported by ads and the premium service has different economics. The main revenue is generated from the subscription fee of the premium members. The free service however helps to generate revenue through ads. It is a widely growing platform as the number of members keeps increasing with time. One of the stats
The free service facilitates users to listen to a large number of songs but with the interruption of ads in between. There is also an option for vertical video ads for mobiles, laptops, and tablets that shows ads at the beginning of any playlist. If the user watches the whole ad he/she is allowed to listen without any interruption of further ads for 30 minutes.
Royalties are paid by Spotify to own the music it streams and is considered the main expense of the service. Spotify 2018 paid €3.5 billion in royalties for its premium users and around €0.5 billion for free users which makes it almost 74% of the overall cost. Spotify in the past also has faced difficulty tracking the actual owner of the track and thus it led Spotify to pay penalties. However, the technology of blockchain has been added to the algorithm of Spotify so that ownership tracking becomes easier.
Premium plans come with several options, users can select the one that suits them better. There are discounts also available for users to get subscriptions at lower prices.
There are four sorts of premium subscriptions and all four of them offer a free one-month trial. After the trial month, the user is ought to pay for the chosen subscription type.
- Individual: This gives a premium subscription access to one account for $9.99 per month.
- Duo: This gives a premium subscription access to two accounts for $12.99 per month.
- Family: This gives a premium subscription access to six accounts for $15.99 per month.
- Student: This gives a premium subscription access to one account for $4.99 per month. This is for students only and the user is ought to prove that he is a student currently studying.
Conclusion:
Spotify is a leading digital streaming service that facilitates the artists and audience equally by providing original tracks. It saves one from illegal downloading of music which affects the owner of the tracks. Spotify safeguards the copyrights of all the tracks it contains and pays royalties to the owners. Daniel Ek founded Spotify in partnership with Martin Lorentzon. Spotify came into the market in 2006 but officially got launched in 2008. More people are directed towards Spotify and getting subscriptions due to its quality performance and services. It is an easy-to-operate application that can be used on any device and browser as well. Spotify stands out from other competitive music streaming services due to its compelling features of the separate account, separate playlist creation, sharing activities with your friends, and group sessions. Apart from music, Spotify has a vast range of podcast streaming. Spotify has enabled both free and paid services and the main difference is the quality of the content. The free user gets to listen to songs on Spotify but the premium user gets to experience additional benefits. Spotify owners along with their institutional shareholders have built a bridge between music lovers and art.
