Spotify (/ˈspɒtɪfaɪ/ ; swedish: [ˈspɔ̂tːɪfaj]) is a privately held swedish[6] audio and multimedia streaming service provider founded on april 23, 2006 by daniel ek and martin lorenzon.[7] it is one of the leading music streaming business with over 489 million monthly regular users, including 205 million paid subscribers as of december 2022. Spotify is listed (through holding company spotify technology s.A.[1] based in luxembourg) on the new york online exchange in a manner similar to american depository receipts[8]. As a free service, core functionality is free with ads and some controls, while additional options such as offline listening and spam-free listening are offered through paid subscriptions. Users can search for a song by artist, album, or genre, and create, edit, and share playlists.Spotify is available in select countries in europe and elsewhere, americas, asia, and oceania, general availability in 184 markets.[9] its people and subscribers are most often based in america and european countries, and this together accounts for approximately 53% of gamers and 67% of revenues. Its application is not present in mainland china, where qq music dominates the market. The service is available on many devices, including windows, macos and linux computers, ios and android tablets and gadgets, smart home devices like the amazon echo and google nest product lines, and digital media players like roku.[11] </>Unlike physical or download sales, where artists are paid a fixed price per track or album sold, spotify pays royalties based on the artist's number of plays as a percentage of the total number of songs played. It distributes approximately 70% of its total income to rights holders (often record labels), who then pay artists based on individual agreements.[12]Spotify was formed in 2006 in stockholm, sweden. [13] daniel ek, former cto of stardoll, and martin lorenzon, co-founder of tradedoubler.[14][15 according to ek, the company's name was initially misheard in reference to the name lorenzon shouted. Then they came up with the phrase "reveal" and "identify".[16]Early international launchesIn february 2010, spotify opened public registration for the free service tier in the united kingdom. Signups skyrocketed after the introduction of the mobile service, causing spotify to suspend signups for the no-charge service in september, returning the uk to an invite-only policy.[17]Spotify launched in america. America in july 2011 and offered a six-month trial period through advertising, where new fans of the games could listen to any number of music for free. In january 2012, the free trial began to expire and users were limited to ten hours of streaming each month and five listening to any song. Using pc streaming, you will be able to see a structure similar to what we see today need clarification] when a fan of this art is able to freely play songs, however with ads every 4-7 songs based on the duration of listening. Over time - in the same year, in early spring, spotify removed all restrictions on the free service step for a while, including mobile equipment.[19]In april 2016, ek and lorenzon wrote an open letter to swedish politicians. , Requiring action in three areas that they claim have hampered the company's ability to hire great, reliable developers as spotify grows, including access to flexible housing, a better degree in programming, and projects and stock options. Ek and lorenzon wrote that to continue to compete in the global economy, policy makers need to respond with new policies or thousands of spotify businesses will be relocated from sweden to the united states.[20] In late winter 2017 spotify announced the expansion of its operations in the united states in lower manhattan, new york, at 4 world trade center, adding approximately 1,000 new cases and leaving 832 existing positions. The firm's us headquarters is located near flatiron in new york.[22]On november 14 this year, the company announced the opening of 13 new markets in the mena area, a new arab center, and para- playlist trio.[23]Other developmentsStream recordingsEd's "thinking out loud" last october shirana became the first song to exceed 500 million streams.[24] a month later, spotify announced that "lean on" major lazer and dj snake featuring mø had become the most requested song of all time with over 525 million plays worldwide. In april 2016, rihanna overtook justin bieber to become the biggest artist on spotify with 31.3 million monthly active listeners. In may 2016, rihanna was overtaken by drake with a total of 31.85 million streams. In december 2016, drake's 36.068 million monthly listeners were outperformed by just under 36 million weeknd listeners.[28] over time, in its month, drake's "one dance" became the first song to hit a billion streams on spotify.[29][30] after the release in august of the seventeenth year, taylor swift's single "look what they made me do" gained more than eight million streams in 24 hours, breaking the record for the most streams of a track in one day. On june 19 of this year, the hit single xxxtentacion "sad!" Broke swift's single-day streaming record with 10.4 million streams the day after he was mortally wounded in florida.[32]User growthIn march 2011, spotify announced a customer base of one million paid subscribers across europe,[33] and by september 2011, the number of paid subscribers had doubled to two million.[34] in august 2012, time reported 15 million regular users, four million of whom would be paying spotify subscribers. The rise in user numbers has continued, reaching a total of 20 million active users in december 2012, including five million paying customers worldwide and a single million paying customers in the states.[36] by march 2013, the service had 24 million active players, six million paid subscribers,[37] the number of visitors grew to 40 million (including ten million paid subscribers) at the end of spring 2014,[38] 60 million players (including 15 million paid ) in december 2014, 75 million music lovers (20 million paid) in june 2015, 30 million paid subscribers in early spring 2016[39] 40 million paying subscribers in september 2016[40% and long-term million customers in june 2016[41]. In april of the coming year, spotify had 133 million premium users.[42] in countries affected by the covid-19 pandemic, after february, spotify recorded a decrease in the number of users, but then there is a regeneration.[43] in march 2022, spotify had 182 million premium subscribers. As of the end of the second quarter of 2022, spotify reported 188 million paying subscribers and 433 million gamers overall. In the early spring of 1917, that in the territory of their efforts to renegotiate new music label licensing agreements, spotify and the major record labels agreed that spotify would limit some newly released albums to their premium tier, along with spotify receiving a reduction in royalties in return. . Individual albums only become available at premium tier for a certain year of hours prior to general release. The deal could be finalized in a fixed number of months, but it's very rumored that spotify has cleared this particular item with the major record labels." New reports in april confirmed that spotify and the universal music group had reached an agreement allowing artists affiliated with universal to limit their fresh album releases to premium service for a maximum of two weeks. Spotify ceo daniel ek commented: “our team knows that not every album from every artist has to be released the same way, and our staff has been working hard with umg to develop a new, flexible release policy. From now on, universal artists have the right to produce the latest music. Premium albums are only available for a matter of weeks, offering subscribers an earlier opportunity to view all of the competition's work, and singles are being offered on spotify for certain of our listeners." Following in april, it was announced that this type of agreement would be extended to independent artists signed to the merlin network.[52][53]Direct public offerSpotify went public in april new items using direct public announcement but not initial public offering. This approach is designed not to attract new capital, but to do so so that investors can get their profits.[54][55][56] morgan stanley is the company's appointed advisor on this matter. % Above the reference value of $132.[57]Hacking incident this yearJuly 3, 2020 cybersecurity company vpnmentor discovered a database containing 380 million individual records. , Including logins and passwords of spotify users.[58] the database was thought to be evidence of an impending credential cyberattack targeting spotify[59] as it included the credentials of up to 350,000 compromised user accounts[60]. In response to the attack, spotify issued a rolling password reset for affected accounts in november 2020.[61]Acquisitions and original dealsIn may 2013 . , Spotify acquired the music selection app tunigo.[62] in march 2014, they acquired music analytics company the echo nest. In june 2015, spotify announced the acquisition of seed scientific, a data science consultancy and analytics company. In a comment to techcrunch, spotify announced that the seed scientific team will jointly lead the advanced analytics division that develops data services.[65] [66] in january 2016, they acquired social media and messaging startups cord project and soundwave, and in april 2016, crowdalbum, "a startup that collects photos and videos of performances shared on social media." Improved development of this kind helps artists to understand, activate and monetize their own audience.”[68] in november 2016, spotify acquired preact, "a cloud-based marketplace followed by a service built for producers on a subscription model to reduce churn and grow subscribers."[69]B in march 1917, spotify acquired sonalytic, a sound discovery startup, for an undisclosed sum of money. Spotify said sonalytic will be used to improve the company's personalized playlists, better match songs to singles, and upgrade the company's data publishing system. Later in the month, spotify also acquired mightytv, an app connected to tv streaming services including netflix and hbo go that recommends content to users. Spotify intended to use mightytv for this free tier content. In april 17, they acquired mediachain, a blockchain startup that was developing a decentralized consumer database system to manage attribution and other media metadata. This was followed in late spring 2017 by the acquisition of artificial intelligence startup niland, which uses technology to build personalization features and recommendations for players. In november 2017, spotify acquired soundtrap, an online music studio startup.[76][77]April 12, 2018, spotify acquired music licensing platform loudr.[78] a few weeks into 2018, spotify bought exclusive rights to joe budden's podcast and expanded the show schedule to a couple of times a week. On february 6 this year, spotify acquired the podcast networks gimlet media and anchor fm inc. With the goal of establishing himself as a leading figure in podcasting. On march 26 of the new year, spotify announced the acquisition of a third podcast network, parcast. On september 12 of the following year, spotify acquired soundbetter, an audio production marketplace where members of the music industry can collaborate on projects and distribute music files for licensing. On november 19, 2019, spotify announced that it https://mst-software.com/ had acquired exclusive rights to the last podcast on the left.[86]On february 5, 2020, spotify announced its intention to acquire a sports and pop culture blog and the ringer podcast network for an undisclosed amount. May 19, 2020 spotify has acquired exclusive streaming rights to the popular podcast the joe rogan experience starting in september of the same episode in a deal worth approximately $100 million.[89][90] in november this year spotify announced it is in action to buy the megaphone from the slate group for us$235 million.[91] in march 2021, spotify acquired app developer betty labs which social audio app for live streaming locker room. In order to maintain the same creative regulation of the show after the move. In june 2021, the dressing room was rebranded as spotify greenroom and turned into a clubhouse competitor. That same month, spotify acquired podz, a podcast discovery startup. That same month, spotify bought exclusive rights to the call her daddy podcast. In november 2021, spotify acquired audiobook company findaway, including its publisher orangesky audio. In december 2021, spotify acquired whooshkaa, a podcast technology company that develops specialized technologies to help broadcasters easily turn their existing audio content into on-demand podcast programs.[99]In february 2022. , Spotify acquired chartable and podsights. Both companies advertise podcasts.[100%, in 2022, spotify greenroom was rebranded as spotify live. In june 2022, spotify acquired sonantic, a developer of synthetic voice and videos.In july 2022, spotify acquired heardle, a music quiz game inspired by wordle, for an undisclosed amount. In october 2022, spotify acquired dublin-based content moderation startup kinzen.[105]Partnering with the companyIn january 2015, sony announced playstation music, a new music a platform whose exclusive partner is spotify. Playstation music includes the spotify service in the sony playstation three playstation 4 gaming devices, as well as in sony xperia mobile devices. Service launched march 30, 2015[106] in early spring 2017, spotify announced a collaboration with the south by southwest (sxsw) conference for 2017, featuring certain content in special playlists via the sxsw hub in spotify icons. The integration also allowed spotify's sxsw go add-on to help users find and explore artists who are speaking at the conference. Two partnerships were also announced in march; one with wnyc studios and one with waze. The wnyc studios partnership brought various wnyc podcasts to spotify, including note to self, on the media and here's the thing. Spotify also announced that the third season of the wnyc studios 2 dope queens podcast will premiere on march 21, 2017 with a two-week exclusivity period on the service. Working with waze allows waze app users to view directions to destinations in the spotify app and set stamps to access their spotify playlists through the waze app.[108]In october 2017, microsoft announced the end of its streaming groove music service by december, but all songs from customers will be streamed to spotify as part of the new partnership. In december, spotify and tencent's music division, tencent music entertainment (tme), agreed to swap shares and invest in each other's music commerce. As a result of their deal, spotify received a 9% stake in tme and tme received a 7.5% stake in spotify. Discord chat service in visitors: for desktop, allowing users to display the currently playing song as a rich presence in their account and invite other visitors using spotify premium to the "listening groups" group. In april, spotify announced a discounted entertainment package with video seller on its application hulu, which included promotions for university students.[114]In may of the upcoming year, spotify teamed up with espn and netflix. To create podcasts about their michael jordan documentary the last dance,[115] and in september, spotify signed a contract with chernin entertainment to perform tapes and tv shows[116]In 2022, spotify became official streaming partner of fc barcelona. To bring the streaming brand into the game with the launch of spotify island.[118]Dispute with appleIn july 2015, spotify was launched. An email campaign encouraging app store subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and redeem new ones through their website, bypassing the 30% in-app transaction fee. Ses has to be bought for ios applications by technology company apple inc.[119] a later update of the spotify app for ios was rejected by apple, prompting spotify general counsel horacio gutierrez to email then apple general counsel bruce sewell stating: "this latest episode is a major concern under us and european union competition law. This continues apple's disturbing pattern of behavior to exclude and reduce the competitiveness of spotify on ios and as a competitor to apple music, especially amidst apple's previous anti-competitive behavior against spotify...People are unable to stay interesting as apple uses the upstore approval process as weapons to harm competitors." All creators, and publicly resort to rumors and half-truths about our service.” He also clarified that such recommendations apply equally to all app developers, whether they are game developers, e-book sellers, video streaming services or digital music distributors, whether or not they compete with apple. We didn't change our personal behavior or our policies when we introduced our own music streaming service or when spotify became a competitor." Furthermore, he stated that nothing in apple's conduct is intended to amount to a violation of applicable antitrust laws." That's not the case yet... I'll be happy to lend a helping hand in quickly reviewing and approving your application as soon as you provide us with something that complies with the upstore standards."[121][122]In the following months, spotify, along with a handful of other companies, filed a letter with the eu antitrust authority indirectly accusing apple and google of "abusing their 'privileged position' at the top of the market", referring to many firms as having "become 'gatekeepers' rather than 'gateways'".[123][124] the complaint led the european union to announce that it would prepare an initiative for a possible unfair competition law in late 2017.[125][126]Spotify released the 1st variation own apple watch app in november of this year, allowing you to control playback on the iphone through the watch. Visitors can also choose which devices to play themes via bluetooth.[127] as the dispute with apple further escalated, on march 13 this year, spotify filed an antitrust complaint with the european commission over the unfair practices of the software supermarket. Two days later, apple responded stating that the claim was misleading rhetoric and what a useful thing spotify dreamed of getting the benefits of a free app, not being a free app. Because apple's actions are detrimental to competition and customers and are in clear violation of the law. It also indicates that apple believes that spotify users in the app market are apple customers, not spotify customers. Were possible without the apple app store website. In addition, apple stated that they were trying to handle spotify in order to better integrate the service with apple products like siri and apple watch. This year, ios 13 made it possible to play spotify music using siri commands.[130]Spotify was one of the first companies to support epic games in their lawsuit against apple, which was filed after how epic also tried to bypass apple's 30% microtransaction fee in fortnite. In september this year, spotify, epic, and others launched the app fairness coalition, whose goal remains to improve the conditions for inclusion of apps in app stores.[131]Dispute with kakao entertainment corp. .On march 1, 2021, spotify confirmed that its site will no longer have access to the music of artists represented by kakao entertainment. However, after discussing and renewing their contracts, spotify later announced that they had reached an agreement with kakao entertainment, allowing their content to be made available again on the site