The Business Model of Spotify

<p>Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media services company created by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon on 23 April 2006. As of April 2026, it is the world's most popular audio streaming subscription service, with 761 million monthly active users, including 293 million paid subscribers, across 184 markets. Spotify is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts (via a Luxembourg-based holding company, Spotify Technology S.A.). Spotify provides digital copyright-restricted recorded music, podcasts, and audiobooks from record labels and media firms, including over 100 million tracks, 7 million podcast titles, and 700,000 audiobooks. As a freemium service, basic functions such as offline listening and limited control are available for a fee, while further features such as commercial-free listening and offline listening are available via paid subscriptions. Users can do artist, album, or genre searches and build, update, and share playlists.</p>