Beech Tree News Network

My favorite music streaming service is Spotify.  I’ve been a subscriber twice: once for almost a decade, then I switched to Apple Music for several years before returning to Spotify. I listen to it constantly when I run.  Did you know Spotify has their operational headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden? The founder is Daniel Ek Martin Lorentzon.  Spotify is a digital music, podcast and video streaming service that gives you access to millions of songs and other content from around the world.  Basic functions such as playing music are totally free, but you can also upgrade to Spotify Premium.  

(www.wikipedia.com) The oldest song on Spotify is the oldest song in the world, The Hymn of Ugarit.  The Spotify app was launched on October 7, 2008.  While free accounts remained available by invitation, the launch opened paid subscription to everyone.  At the same time, Spotify announced licensing deals with major music labels.  In February 2009, Spotify launched in the United Kingdom.  In July 2011, Spotify launched in the United States and offered a six-month ad-supported trial period.  In January 2012, the free periods began to expire.  

A few notables: In October 2015, “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran became the first song to pass 500 million streams.  A month later, Spotify announced that “Lean On” by Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring Mo was the most streamed song of all time with over 525 million streams worldwide.  In April 2016, Rihanna overtook Justin Bieber to become the biggest artist on Spotify until the next month when she was overtaken by Drake.  

In March 2011, Spotify had 1 million paying customers across Europe.  In September of that year, that number doubled.  By March 2013, the service had 24 million active users, six million being paid subscribers.  I was, and still am, one of those paid subscribers.  I wouldn’t give up Spotify for anything.  Five years ago, Spotify had grown to 75 million users.  In June 2016, they had 30 million active subscribers.  In April of this year, Spotify reached 133 million premium users. In countries affected by COVID-19, Spotify registered a fall in users in late February but has since recovered.  

As far as Spotify partnerships, check these out:

January 2015: Sony announces PlayStation Music. March 2017: Spotify announces partnership with South By Southwest .

October 2017: Microsoft announced it would end its service, Groove Music, and essentially merging with Spotify, taking Microsoft users to Spotify.

December 2017: Spotify and Tencent’s music arm, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) agreed to swap stakes and make an investment in each other’s music business.  February 2018: Spotify integrated with gaming-oriented voice chat service Discord.  

April 2018: Spotify announces discounted entertainment bundle with Hulu, which included discounted rates for university students.  In May, 2020, Spotify teamed with ESPN and Netflix to curate podcasts around Netflix’s Michael Jordan documentary.