*** Welcome to piglix ***

Spotify

Spotify
Spotify Logo
Type of business Private
Available in 50+ languages, 20 languages (18 if excluding similar dialects) in desktop version
Founded 23 April 2006; 10 years ago (2006-04-23)
Headquarters , Sweden
Country of origin Sweden
No. of locations 20
Owner Spotify Technology S.A.
Founder(s) Daniel Ek, Martin Lorentzon
CEO Daniel Ek
Industry Music, podcast, and video
Services Music streaming
Employees 1,600+
Website www.spotify.com
Alexa rank Increase 153 (January 2017)
Registration Required
Users 100 million (40 million paying)
Launched 7 October 2008 (2008-10-07)
Native client(s) on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS and Linux

Spotify is a music, podcast, and video streaming service launched in October 2008, developed by startup Spotify AB in , Sweden. It provides digital rights management-protected content from record labels and media companies. Spotify is a freemium service, meaning that basic services are free with advertisements, with additional features, such as improved streaming quality, offered via paid subscriptions.

Spotify is available in most of Europe, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and some Asian countries and territories, and for most modern devices, including Windows, macOS, and Linux computers, and Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Music can be browsed or searched by artist, album, genre, playlist, and record label. Users can create, edit and share playlists, share tracks on social networks, and make playlists with other users. Spotify provides access to over 30 million songs. As of June 2016, Spotify had 100 million monthly active users, and as of September 2016 it had 40 million paying subscribers.

Unlike physical or download sales, which pay artists a fixed price per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on the number of artists' streams as a proportion of total songs streamed on the service. They distribute approximately 70% of total revenue to rights holders, who then pay artists based on their individual agreements. Spotify has faced criticism from artists and producers, including Taylor Swift and Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, who feel it does not fairly compensate music creators as music sales decline and music streaming increases.

Spotify operates under a freemium model (basic services are free, while additional features are offered via paid subscriptions). Spotify makes its revenues by selling premium streaming subscriptions to users and advertising placements to third parties.


...
Wikipedia

...