How and why does Spotify dominate the audio consumption industry?
What is Spotify?
Spotify was founded in Sweden by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in 2006, then had a successful launch in 2008 with a Facebook partnership. Now, it is the world’s biggest streaming platform. The app allows users to listen to audio content including music and podcasts. Users can listen for free – hearing ads intermittently or can pay for a subscription of £4.99 per month allowing them to listen ad free and giving them access to other features such as multiple playlists.
How many users does it have?
Worldwide, Spotify has 248 million users, with 39% of these being from Europe. 141 million of these users are not premium subscribers, meaning they are ad supporters and often hear advertisements when listening to content.
What are Spotify’s demographics?
The platform’s audience demographic is dominated by millennials with the majority of its users being between the ages of 25-34. It also has a large audience of people between the ages of 18-24.
Listening habits
Users listen an average of 2.5 hours a day. Spotify generates playlists for users specifically designed for times users are most likely to listen to music, this includes playlists such as ‘workout’, ‘relax’ and ‘listen in the car’.
Drake currently holds the title of the most monthly listeners on Spotify, much like he did in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Other most listened to artists include The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa.
Competitors
Although Spotify does dominate music consumption, this does not mean to say there is no competition. The most popular competitor is Apple Music which holds many similarities to Spotify such as tailored playlists and radio stations for its users.
Spotify during COVID-19
During the Coronavirus pandemic, the app has built a fundraising feature which allows users to donate to charities and small artists. Spotify hope that this will allow struggling artists to continue to create music during lockdown.
Recent news
On May 19th it was announced that Spotify had signed comedian and arguably currently the world’s most popular podcaster Joe Rogan. His show ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ will become exclusive to Spotify from September this year.
What’s next?
The streaming provider is continuing to release audiobooks with it’s recent introduction of Harry Potter. Spotify have also introduced their ‘listening together’ feature. When two people press play on a song at the same time a map of earth will display the country and city the song is playing. Allowing people from all over the world to feel connected.
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