Spotify

Spotify began in Stockholm in April 2006, when Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon set out to offer a lawful alternative to music piracy. That founding idea still shapes the service: a freemium model in which the basic tier is free with advertisements and limited control, while paid subscriptions unlock offline listening and commercial-free playback. Its catalogue holds more than 100 million songs and over 7 million podcast titles, supplied by record labels and media companies, and listeners can search by artist, album or genre, build and share playlists, and gather friends into listening sessions called Jams.

The service reached several European markets in October 2008 and the United States in July 2011. Through the 2010s it widened into podcasts and audiobooks, and it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2018 through a direct public offering. Spotify reported its first profitable year in 2024, when it had 252 million subscribers and 640 million monthly active users; by the end of 2025 those figures stood at 290 million Premium subscribers and 751 million monthly users. Its royalty model, which pays by stream share, has drawn objections from some musicians.