Today, we announced our first quarter 2024 earnings. In a solid start to the year, Spotify reported…
Monthly Active Users grew 19% Y/Y to 615 million.
Subscribers increased 14% Y/Y to 239 million.
Total Revenue was up 20% Y/Y to €3.6 billion.
Gross Margin reached 27.6%.
Operating Income improved to €168 million.
“We’ve talked about 2024 as the year of monetization and we’re delivering on that ambition,” said Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek. “Now as we’ve shifted to focus on strong revenue growth and margin expansion, we see a clear opportunity to ensure we are also continuing to grow the top of our funnel. I feel good about the changes we are implementing and remain very confident in our ability to reach the ambitious plans we’ve outlined.”
Interested in hearing more? Click here to review the full earnings release, and listen to the webcast Q&A on our Investor Relations site here.
Earlier today, CEO Daniel Ek shared the following note about the company’s organizational changes with all Spotify employees.
Team,
Over the last two years, we’ve put significant emphasis on building Spotify into a truly great and sustainable business – one designed to achieve our goal of being the world’s leading audio companyand one that will consistently drive profitability and growth into the future. While we’ve made worthy strides, as I’ve shared many times, we still have work to do. Economic growth has slowed dramatically and capital has become more expensive. Spotify is not an exception to these realities.
This brings me to a decision that will mean a significant step change for our company. To align Spotify with our future goals and ensure we are right-sized for the challenges ahead, I have made the difficult decision to reduce our total headcount by approximately 17% across the company. I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions. To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us.
For those leaving, we’re a better company because of your dedication and hard work. Thank you for sharing your talents with us. I hope you know that your contributions have impacted more than half a billion people and millions of artists, creators, and authors around the world in profound ways.
I realize that for many, a reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and our performance. We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025. Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to rightsize our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives. While I am convinced this is the right action for our company, I also understand it will be incredibly painful for our team.
To understand this decision, I think it is important to assess Spotify with a clear, objective lens. In 2020 and 2021, we took advantage of the opportunity presented by lower-cost capital and invested significantly in team expansion, content enhancement, marketing, and new verticals. These investments generally worked, contributing to Spotify’s increased output and the platform’s robust growth this past year. However, we now find ourselves in a very different environment. And despite our efforts to reduce costs this past year, our cost structure for where we need to be is still too big.
When we look back on 2022 and 2023, it has truly been impressive what we have accomplished. But, at the same time, the reality is much of this output was linked to having more resources. By most metrics, we were more productive but less efficient. We need to be both. While we have done some work to mitigate this challenge and become more efficient in 2023, we still have a ways to go before we are both productive and efficient. Today, we still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact. More people need to be focused on delivering for our key stakeholders – creators and consumers. In two words, we have to become relentlessly resourceful.
I know you will all be anxious to hear the next steps about how this process will work. If you are an impacted employee, you will receive a calendar invite within the next two hours from HR for a one-on-one conversation. These meetings will take place before the end of the day on Tuesday, and while Katarina will provide more detail on all of the specifics, please know the following will apply to all of these bandmates:
Severance pay: We will start with a baseline for all employees, with the average employee receiving approximately five months of severance. This will be calculated based on local notice period requirements and employee tenure.
PTO: All accrued and unused vacation will be paid out to any departing employee.
Healthcare: We will continue to cover healthcare for employees during their severance period.
Immigration support: For employees whose immigration status is connected with their employment, HRBPs are working with each impacted individual in concert with our mobility team.
Career Support:All employees will be eligible for outplacement services for two months.
For the team that will remain at Spotify, I know this decision will be difficult for many. Please know we are focused on treating our impacted colleagues with the respect and compassion they deserve.
Looking Ahead
The decision to reduce our team size is a hard but crucial step towards forging a stronger, more efficient Spotify for the future. But it also highlights that we need to change how we work. In Spotify’s early days, our success was hard won. We had limited resources and had to make the most of every asset. Our ingenuity and creativity were what set us apart. As we’ve grown, we’ve moved too far away from this core principle of resourcefulness.
The Spotify of tomorrow must be defined by being relentlessly resourceful in the ways we operate, innovate, and tackle problems. This kind of resourcefulness transcends the basic definition – it’s about preparing for our next phase, where being lean is not just an option but a necessity.
Embracing this leaner structure will also allow us to invest our profits more strategically back into the business. With a more targeted approach, every investment and initiative becomes more impactful, offering greater opportunities for success. This is not a step back; it’s a strategic reorientation. We’re still committed to investing and making bold bets, but now, with a more focused approach, ensuring Spotify’s continued profitability and ability to innovate. Lean doesn’t mean small ambitions; it means smarter, more impactful paths to achieve them.
Today is a difficult but important day for the company. To be very clear, my commitment to our mission and belief in our ability to achieve it has never been stronger. I hope you will join me on Wednesday for Unplugged to discuss how we move forward together. A reduction of this size will make it necessary to change the way we work, and we will share much more about what this will mean in the days and weeks ahead. Just as 2023 marked a new chapter for us, so will 2024 as we build an even stronger Spotify.
You may have noticed that we’re into helping our listeners find something new. A combination of beloved personalized Spotify playlists like Discover Weekly, editorially-curated standouts like Fresh Finds, new playlist-enhancing features like Smart Shuffle, and our listeners’ thirst for auditory adventures means that nearly two billion music discoveries happen on Spotify every day.
But we’re not the only ones who love discovery. Every day, creators around the world share their favorite playlists, products, and people with their followers, helping their fans, in turn, fall in love with the next best thing. In For the Record’s new Discovery Monday series, we talk to content creators about recent discoveries, covering everything from music to podcasts, as well as food, fashion, TV, beauty, and more.
We’re kicking off with iJustine, a tech creator, podcast host, and dog mom. The lifestyle vlogger dives into new trends, tech, and hobbies—her latest is literally diving—speaking to entrepreneurs and attending product launches.
Your videos help build understanding of the tech world. How did you make this your niche?
Finding tech, for me, and creating content around it was sort of just an extension of something that I naturally did growing up and in my everyday life. A curiosity and wonderment of how things work is what brought me to tech. When I was younger, I used to take things apart and then my parents would be like, “Oh no, now we have to figure out how to fix this.” Till now, that approach has been amazing because there’s never a shortage of things to make videos about. There’s always new tech, and especially recently with AI. And I like to create; making videos is fun for me, and I really genuinely love all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into the videos. There’s just so much to talk about, and it really is a never-ending source of content.
Why do you love introducing your followers to new tools, products, and people?
I love having the opportunity to interview a CEO or an entrepreneur—people I look up to. It’s been so fun to hear their journeys and then bring them into my world.
I have a very interesting audience. A lot of them are younger women and girls who are kind of trying to figure out their way. I want them to see somebody in a space that makes them feel safe. Because when I was younger, playing video games and doing things that I am into now—it wasn’t cool. And I was being made fun of for it. But now I’m like, “Man, you guys got it made!” Because being into tech is cool now. So, I just want people to be able to explore that. Even if it’s not cool now, you never know. Might be later.
What tools or resources do you use in your research?
I always ask my audience for suggestions. Even recently, I was asking for good diving spots in Oahu, and I would much rather hear from a person directly. I find almost all of my things from my viewers or audience or friends who are following me. It’s kind of awesome because it’s like, yeah, I could have Googled it, but I would rather hear from someone who actually has been there and experienced it and knows if it’s something that I would like.
What have you been listening to lately? Old favorites? Something new? Or somewhere in between?
I’m definitely open to discovery, but recently, I do feel like when I open up Spotify, I go to my favorites. Recently, my sister and I went on a trip and we went back to our 2018 Hawaii playlist, and we were basically reliving the trip through our music from 2018. So, it’s kind of fun to kind of go back, and the fact that, like, we’ve both been on Spotify for so long meant we were able to go back to all these playlists and kind of relive that piece of history and memories through music, and that’s always so fun for me.
What’s your favorite way to discover on Spotify? Do you use playlists like Discover Weekly, features like AI DJ, or tools like Smart Shuffle?
I’m a huge fan of Smart Shuffle because I love being able to go back into my old playlists and use Smart Shuffle to reinvigorate them. You do spend so much time curating those, and it does bring you back to a specific moment. So, being able to just add some new songs in, and, I mean, some of my playlists are super short, so being able to add in stuff that I’ve already done is really cool.
I also almost always go to the top new songs playlist, Today’s Top Hits. I love being able to just scroll through it because it’s all genres. And, I mean, I definitely love pop, rock, and I used to be really into heavy metal, but that was, you know, a little bit of a phase during high school and college. But it is fun to kind of go back to that playlist because I love so many genres of music and that playlist does have a little bit of everything. I’m also always going back to the 90s playlists because I love nostalgic music.
Classical heavy metal mix. That would be pretty awesome to hear. We’re gonna be head-banging out!
A rapid-fire round of your favorite recent discoveries: Let’s start with artists or genres.
I am obsessed withOneRepublic, so I’ve been really enjoying remixes of some of my favorite songs of theirs. It’s a good way to break out of my normal listening habits.
Any new podcasts you’ve gotten especially into lately? How did you discover them?
I just started listening to Heal Squad x Maria Menonous. She always has so many helpful tips about healing your body, and she has so many incredible guests on. She actually invited me onto it and that’s how I found out about it, and now I’m obsessed.
Are you an audiobooks fan? What’s your favorite way to listen?
I am addicted. I will cycle through audiobooks so fast because I need to stay distracted to keep my brain focused on things. When I’m doing laundry, cleaning, I’ll have an audiobook on. I recently got into nonfiction audiobooks, and I love listening to history and self-help. I also watched the Daisy Jones and the Six series and then have listened to every single Taylor Jenkins Reid audiobook over the past few months.
What’s your latest obsession?
That’s usually every single random new hobby that I get. And recently, I got into diving. So now I’m buying all the diving gear; I’m looking for diving creators, places to go. I’m definitely one of those people who’s like, when I start doing something, I go 100%. There’s no backing down.
Earlier today while in conversation with Spotify co-founder and CEO DanielEk, comedian, author, and former Daily Show host TrevorNoahrevealed that he’ll be moving into the world of podcasting with a new Spotify Original podcast, launching later this year.
“My passion and my joy has always been connecting people and connecting ideas,” Trevor explained to Daniel. “I think we live in a world where as we become more connected, ironically, we become a little disconnected. And so, what I’ve always liked to do is try to connect and draw those threads between ideas, between people. That’s what I’ll continue to do with the podcast.”
From the stage at Spotify Beach at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, he went on to explain that his new podcast won’t focus specifically on any one type of person—or on breaking news. “I’m going to be finding a story, person, and world, and then trying to thread those things together,” he said. “Not in a way that’s reactive, not in a way that’s specifically tied to what people think of as news, but rather cultural moments, ideas, that give us a better understanding of the world we live in. Some of them might be funny; some of them might be deep; some of them might be intense stories. But they’ll all be stories that we want to talk about and ideas that we want to share.”
In addition to the announcement, Trevor and Daniel discussed navigating different mediums to forge a deeper connection with audiences, and how creators can effectively leverage new technologies in an ever-evolving media landscape. Read on for highlights from their conversation.
Daniel: What is it about the format of podcasting that really intrigues you?
Trevor: Every format, if you’re a storyteller, presents you with an opportunity to tell a story differently. So, television obviously occupies certain senses: You watch it and listen. When you’re on stage, it’s a live experience. And so, everything that is communicated is happening instantly, and then it’s gone.
What happens with the podcast, that I love, is it’s akin to radio, which I did many, many years ago in South Africa. And it’s intimate. It is everywhere. And it connects you in a way that not many mediums can. I don’t know about you, but I listen to podcasts in some of my most private settings—when I’m driving, commuting, taking a walk—and it feels like it’s just for you. It becomes your own journey, at your own time, in your own way. It doesn’t have the “you missed it” feeling that some other media has, and it also doesn’t have the en mass feeling either.
Daniel: How do you think this format will be different than something like TheDaily Show?
Trevor: The Daily Show was fast, reactive, fun. It’s happening and you’re responding. I think what I’m aiming to do with this podcast is enjoy taking a little more time processing, synthesizing—you know, finding the ties between and not focusing on one particular area. It’s a lot broader. I mean, you know, your platform: 500 million people all over the globe—that gives you an opportunity to expand the purview of what you’re talking about.
Daniel: You have a lot of ideas both on that and around perhaps how brands can interact with you on the show. Care to share with the audience a little bit of those thoughts?
Trevor: I think podcasting presents a unique opportunity to brands—one that hasn’t been fully realized. I find there’s always a clash in that a brand is trying to achieve its objectives by trying to get to consumers, trying to get its message out, and then the show or the product or the artist are also trying to do their thing. And then you find there’s a clash of creative; there’s a clash of ideas; there’s a clash of authenticity. And what I’ve always struggled to understand is why that connection isn’t more organic. I think everyone can connect to a brand that they like, that they enjoy, that they want to be a part of. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I think finding that connection is key.
And so, I’ve always wondered why in podcasts, for instance, instead of brands trying to be associated with the entire podcast, why don’t they focus on sections in a podcast? Why don’t they look at moments and say, “Hey, this is what I want to be a part of—so I don’t have to cosign everything else that happens on this podcast. I just want to have fun in the section. This tech section or politics section or pop culture section is what our brand stands for.” And so, I think there’s a segmentation that can occur that can provide a brand and creative with more opportunities for flexibility and authenticity.
Daniel: What does being “global” mean to you? What strategies have you pursued in order to bring a global lens to your work?
Trevor: I’m very intentional in trying to create something as many people as possible can enjoy. I hope that you will share my sense of humor. I hope that I can interest you with what I find interesting, and I hope that I can learn from you as well. I learn from my audiences, which I think is a wonderful space to exist as a creator. I don’t claim to be the know-it-all who discovers everything. I’m lucky enough to be able to listen to my fans because we have an age of technology where we can do that. So that’s something that definitely was intentional.
And then, on the other hand, I’ve always loved that I come from a very mixed and international family. You know, my dad is Swiss and my mother is Xhosa, from South Africa. So I always knew that the world existed as more than one group of people. We’ve always been connected across the globe. I don’t think I’ve ever thought of any world or any story as being isolated to the place that it happens in.
Daniel: What podcasts are you listening to and loving?
Trevor: Alex Cooper’s podcast, Call Her Daddy, is amazing. She’s phenomenal in how she’s grown and expanded. She’s another example of someone who had one niche, and she’s grown and shown the multifaceted woman that she is, like all women. Podcasts afford everybody the opportunity to share something.
Daniel: What advice would you give someone who is just starting out on social media?
Trevor: Social media has been amazing in connecting people. But what it has been terrible at is providing the context for that connection. And without context, every interaction can go the wrong way. There was a time when social media was you speaking to people whom you knew or were connected to. And so the context was maintained. Everyone understood every joke or every point of view you had because of how insular it started. Now you don’t know—your message, your tweet, your post, your whatever can go to people hundreds of thousands of miles across the globe who don’t get the full context. Context defines everything. My job is to try and provide you the most context possible. That’s all I’m trying to do—give you the most. But there will never be all the context unless I’m speaking specifically to every single person individually. And so, as a society, I think that’s what we need to work on.
Next week, Spotify is returning to the South of France for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, where we’ll transform Spotify Beach into a hub of activity dawn ’til dusk as we celebrate a new way to play. And we’re bringing along some big-name friends to join in the fun.
Our special opening-night soiree will feature an intimate performance by Grammy Award-winning artist H.E.R.,as well as a DJ set from the unparalleled CollyerTwins.
We’ll be hosting daytime masterclasses and nighttime events beginning Monday, June 19, and continuing through Thursday, June 22, emphasizing our focus on creativity, connection, and innovation. Attendees can look forward to sessions featuring Spotify leaders and guests including AlexCooper, Issa Rae, EmmaChamberlain, and world-renowned football player CescFàbregas. Author and comedian TrevorNoah will join Spotify CEO and Cofounder Daniel Ek for a conversation on the future of storytelling. Throughout the day, catch DJ Toyin spinning sets.
Spotify Beach itself will feature several interactive experiences, like daily sound bath meditations,an immersive Songs of Summer soundscape, an FC Barcelona play zone, a “Sonic Sips” coffee-and-juice bar, a custom sunglasses gifting station, and much more.
Read on for a full list of the sessions on the ground, then check back next week here on For the Record for the full takeaway from our novel masterclasses.
Monday, June 19
Building a brand is more than meets the eye…and ear
Owning your craft takes dedication, consistency, and commitment—something Spotify’s TajAlavi, VP, Global Head of Marketing; Loewe’s CMO CharlieSmith; and Anything Goes creator Emma Chamberlainall know well. The trio will share their approaches to what they create; their style around partnerships and projects, brand building, and brand positioning; and how to engage the next generation of streamers.
Top hits and goal-scoring kicks: fandom, football, and media
We’re hosting a conversation between football legend CescFàbregas, award-winning football Freestyler PolaGomez, Samsung Europe CMO BenjaminBraun, and BradfordRoss, Coca-Cola’s VP Global Sports and Entertainment Marketing and Partnerships. They’ll dive into the obsessive fan culture surrounding sports and how brands tap into fandoms of all kinds.
Tuesday, June 20
The cutting edge of creativity and storytelling
Join DanielEk and TrevorNoah at Spotify Beach as they discuss the future of storytelling and the art of navigating different mediums to forge a deeper connection with worldwide audiences. They’ll offer insights on how creators can tell stories in more meaningful ways and effectively leverage new technologies in the ever-evolving media landscape.
The art of the interview
You don’t need to be an investigative reporter by trade to benefit from learning how to conduct a masterful interview. Things get meta as Spotify’s Chief Public Affairs Officer, DusteeJenkins, sits down with AlexCooper, Creator, Host, and Executive Producer of Call Her Daddy, to discuss the art of the interview. Learn how to craft the right questions, disarm your subject, and get straight to the heart of the matter.
Wednesday, June 21
Connecting to the sound of culture
Spotify’s Global Head of Artist Partnerships, JoeHadley; TyeComer, Creative Development and Founder of Spotify’s Outside Voice program; and Erin Styles, Global Head of Ads Business Communications & PR, will spotlight producer-actress-writer IssaRae; SVP of Marketing at Frito-Lay North America, Tina Mahal; and WACL President RaniaRobinson. They’ll discuss the importance of culture-shaping programs that support and amplify diverse voices. This comes as part of Spotfiy’s continued commitment to empowering creators and inspiring our audience to elevate underrepresented communities in their own work.
DJ Mixer
Turn it up with Spotify’s very own Xavier “X”Jernigan, Head of Cultural Partnerships and the voice of AI DJ. We’re rolling up the carpet for an afternoon mixer complete with games, cocktails, mingling, and—maybe—a surprise or two.
So bookmark For the Record, follow @SpotifyNews and @SpotifyAds on social media, and stay tuned for much more as we discover a new way to play.
As a Swedish entrepreneur, I’ve long admired the American marketplace, where principles like innovation, competition and initiative reign supreme. It’s home to some of the most successful companies around the world because of these factors. When I founded Spotify almost 17 years ago, I believed in many of these same principles. If you can build a better system and if you work hard enough and innovate like crazy, you might just have a real shot at changing an industry for the better – even one as long established as the music business.
But as any entrepreneur can tell you, building a business is full of twists and turns. While I expected some of these challenges, the one I didn’t anticipate is the ongoing fight for fair competition as the digital marketplace has taken shape.
Last year, Congress had an opportunity to address this very issue by passing the Open App Markets Act, a bill led by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, which aimed to rein in clear abuses by gatekeepers like Apple. Despite broad bipartisan support and overwhelming approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Congress did not take it up before the end of the year. Today I’m in Washington to urge the new Congress to take a leadership role and pass the Open App Markets Act to promote competition by providing basic checks on the anti-competitive behavior that’s harming both developers and consumers.
It’s not easy to decide to go head-to-head with Apple – a company that makes some of the world’s most beloved products. Yet, it’s a choice that we felt we had to make because put simply, Spotify and countless developers across the world want to be able to speak to our customers and compete fairly for their business. Apple prohibits competition by not allowing developers to discuss new products, features, and deals with their own users. For instance, Apple promotes deals for Apple Music to Spotify customers, but denies us the same privilege. What’s even more unbelievable, is that we can’t even tell our users the basics of how to sign up for a Spotify subscription or how to purchase an audiobook. This leaves customers without the ability to make informed choices about the services and pricing options available to them. And we aren’t the only ones feeling this impact. I talk to developers daily being disadvantaged by the small number of gatekeepers controlling the internet.
Left unchecked, any company doing business through an app store lives and dies at the mercy of whomever is the gatekeeper at the time. It’s like leasing retail space from one of the few landlords in town who can charge a huge rent, change any term of the lease at any moment’s notice, place its own competing store right next to yours, and then prohibit you from sharing any promotional signs or advertisements that may reveal cheaper prices to customers or any benefits that would enhance their experience in any other location.
It’s impossible to deny that the phone and tablet have become the most common gateways to the internet, and Apple played a major role in making this possible. But the internet was never built to be controlled by a small number of dominant players. Under this current system that enables gatekeepers to dictate their own self-serving terms, consumers often end up paying more. Additionally, any aspiring entrepreneur wanting to create a company not beholden to these arbitrary rules really doesn’t stand a chance.
While I am fortunate that Spotify has been successful despite Apple’s stranglehold, I know that many others aren’t so lucky. In Europe, the Digital Markets Act is a monumental step in the fight for fairness, entrepreneurship, and digital innovation. Other countries, including the UK, South Korea, and Japan, are also pursuing stricter regulations to curb the dominance of gatekeepers. But with no action here in the States, I worry that America risks falling behind, which will ultimately lead to severe consequences for innovation and consumers alike. This is especially troubling given that the United States has long played a leadership role on the global stage and has extolled the values of open competition I believe so deeply in.
This is why we’ve arrived at an inflection point with a clear choice: To fight for an open, competitive marketplace that fosters creativity and enables entrepreneurs to develop and promote their products, or to continue to allow a handful of companies to hold the keys to the internet and advantage themselves at the expense of others. I’m convinced that Congress passing the Open App Markets Act is the only real path to a fair digital future. Let us seize this pivotal moment to reshape the digital landscape, fostering a future of innovation, collaboration, and fair competition.
“Stream On is about all the ways we are bringing Spotify to life and letting creators at all stages of their careers know that we are open for business,” Spotify Founder and CEO Daniel Ek said. “We are focused on building the best home for them—a place where they can establish a career, thrive, and grow, and where the world can be inspired by their creativity. And that’s what we’ve been doing for almost 17 years: building, improving, and reimagining this home to better meet creator needs and help them chart new pathways to success.”
From new app functionality to a holistic one-stop shop for podcasting to more opportunities for artists to engage with their fans, Stream On further cements our commitment to the creative community.
“As we look to the future, we are excited to expand that ambition to even more creators across new formats. We’re enabling more creativity, discovery, and personalization than ever before by providing the best resources, support, and interactivity,” Daniel said.
Helping fans discover creators and artists
We’ve unveiled one of the biggest evolutions since Spotify’s inception: a new, dynamic interface on mobile built for deeper discovery and more meaningful connections between artists and fans.
With this new experience, we’re giving fans an even more active role in the audio discovery process, and giving creators even more space to share their work. Powered by advanced recommendations, new visual canvases, and a completely new and interactive design, the new interface is making discovering new audio easier than ever before and helping introduce users to their next favorite artist, podcast, or book. It’s all about closing the distance between creators and fans—and setting the stage for long-term, lasting connections that reach beyond viral success.
The new Spotify will roll out in waves to our 500 million+ monthly active users beginning today. Here’s what to expect:
Music, podcast, and audiobook previews across Music, Podcasts & Shows, and Audiobooks feeds for listeners to sample before they play or save. We’re also bringing “shortcuts” to the top of listeners’ feeds—giving users easy access to some of their recent and favorite listens.
New feeds for discovery on Searchthat will allow users to quickly and easily explore personalized, short Canvas clips from tracks across some of your favorite genres. Users can easily save the song to a playlist, follow the artist, or share it with friends, all from one place. Looking for something else? Explore related genres using the hashtag within the feed, all with the goal of making discovery even easier.
We’re also bringing this feature to popular playlists like Discover Weekly, Release Radar, New Music Friday, and RapCaviar, inviting users to preview tracks on a playlist before diving in.
Just like with music, we’re now serving Autoplay for Podcasts—when a podcast ends, another episode that fits the user’s tastes and is relevant will automatically start playing.
Smart Shuffle, the easiest way to breathe new life into custom curated playlists with just the tap of a button.
“Spotify recommendations drive close to half of all users’ streams. And when listeners decide to follow a creator, they listen to, on average, five times more of their music,” said GustavSöderström, Spotify Co-President and Chief Product & Technology Officer. “That’s why discoveries on Spotify—unlike many other platforms—give creators so much more than just a fleeting moment of viral fame. Those meaningful, long-term connections are a key part of what makes Spotify a platform for professional and aspiring artists.”
Supporting artist success through streaming
We also unveiled our annual music royalties report, Loud & Clear. The 2023 update demonstrates that more and more artists are finding success than ever before: The number of artists generating $1M+, as well as those generating $10,000+, has more than doubled over the past five years. Additionally, we estimate that the 50,000th highest-earning artist on Spotify generated more than $50,000 across all recorded revenue sources.
Loud & Clear also details how Spotify pays the vast majority of every dollar it generates for music—nearly 70%—back to the industry, and all-time Spotify payouts to music rights holders are approaching $40 billion.
Enabling audience development for artists through new and enhanced tools
We’re always building up our suite of tools to help artists find the fans who’ll love their music most. Here are a few of the new features they will soon find in the Campaigns section of Spotify for Artists:
Marqueeis a full-screen, sponsored recommendation of a new release that’s focused on reaching listeners who have shown interest in an artist’s music. On average, Marquee is 10 times more cost-effective at getting listeners to stream music on Spotify than ads are on the most popular social media platforms.
Discovery Mode is a tool through which artists and their teams identify priority songs, and Spotify will add that signal to the algorithms that shape personalized listening sessions. Today, Discovery Mode is directly available within Spotify for Artists, and is accessible to a wider range of artists and their teams, including thousands of independently distributed artists and labels.
Showcase is a mobile card on our brand-new home feed that will introduce an artist’s music—whether a new release or catalog—to likely listeners. We’re just starting to test Showcase with artists and labels, and will make it more widely available in the near future.
We also shared more details on the next revenue line we’ll enable to help artists grow: merchandise and live events.
New Concert and Merch Discovery tools will help make sure concertgoers never miss another show. Listeners will begin to see merch offers and concert listings in far more places across the app. If a show catches a fan’s eye, they can tap a new “interested” button to save the listing to their own calendar in the Live Events Feed. Users can adjust their location and browse concerts worldwide, all personalized to their taste.
Spotify is also expanding its Fans First program to include more artists, ensuring top listeners receive emails and notifications that give them special access to concert pre-sales and merch exclusives.
And we unveiled new features and product expansions that allow more artists to express themselves in new ways and build buzz among fans. These include:
Spotify Clips, which letsartists add 30-second videos to their artist profiles and album pages so fans can go deeper into their stories while they’re listening; and
CountdownPages, which provide dedicated space on an artist’s profile and Spotify’s Home feed for fans to pre-save albums, see exclusive videos, pre-order merch, preview tracklists, and watch the timer count down to a new release.
Reintroducing Spotify for Podcasters as our one-stop shop for creators
Podcast creators joined our executives onstage to showcase the reimagined Spotify for Podcasters.The site now brings together the best of Spotify’s podcast creator tools into a one-stop shop to create, manage, grow, and monetize podcast content, including:
Broader availability of Spotify-unique features like video podcasting, interactive episodes using Q&A and Polls, subscriptions, and robust analytics
Podcast previews, PodcastChapters, SpotifyLabs, and a new space for educational podcasting content
Megaphone, Spotify’s hosting solution for enterprise publishers, will be integrated into Spotify for Podcasters in the future. Netflix and Australia’s Schwartz Media werejust signed on as two of the latest publishers.
We also looked back at the growth of the Spotify Audience Network (SPAN), our audio-first marketplace that connects podcast publishers and independent creators with advertisers, including monthly payouts to opted-in publishers.
Since we launched SPAN in 2021, it has grown by nearly 50%. Advertiser participation has since increased by 500%.
The number of independent and enterprise podcasters taking part in SPAN has grown eightfold in the last two years, with NPR being the latest publisher to join the network.
We’re partnering with Patreon,which will enable creators to expand their creative business through direct payments from fans, and allow fans to listen to their Patreon content on Spotify.
Announcing new and expanded Spotify Originals and exclusives
Spotify Original and exclusive podcasts saw much success in 2022, with Case 63, The Joe Rogan Experience, and Call Her Daddy taking the top spots of the Wrapped top global podcasts. And now that Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain is exclusively on our platform, Spotify has four of the top five biggest hits worldwide.
We’re expanding our catalog with new shows, including The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark. This latest title follows the Batman Unburied series and its characters in a brand-new story led by Phantom 4 and filmmaker, novelist, and comic book writer DavidS. Goyer.
We’re also introducing more video podcasts, with Forbidden Fruits with Julia Fox and Niki Takesh returning for a second season and an exclusive video podcast edition of the show. Drew Afualo’s podcast, The Comment Section, is also coming to Spotify exclusively starting April 5.
We’ve also entered into an exclusive video partnership with Markiplier to produce exclusive video episodes of DistractibleandGo! My Favorite Sports Team for Spotify beginning today. And with innovative partnerships on the way from Collab, Creative Juice, Get Engaged Media, Golden Child, and Karat to bring their creators’ videos to Spotify, as well as limited video series exclusively available on Spotify from Mindset Mentor, we’re looking forward to introducing millions of new listeners to video podcasts.
Welcoming creators and artists “home” to Spotify
Immediately following the presentation, we opened the doors of our campus in Los Angeles’ Arts District to creators for our “Play On” event to demo new products, hold workshops with top industry creators, and share insider knowledge on how best to use Spotify from the people who helped develop the tools at the company. To close out the activities, we’ll be hosting an all-female showcase to celebrate International Women’s Day.
“Today, there are more than 10 million creators on Spotify, with over half a billion listeners across 184 countries and markets,” Daniel noted. “Think about the massive potential that represents for creators. No matter where you are on your own creative journey within music, podcasts, or audiobooks. The potential to reach half a billion people. And that reach is about to become more powerful with what we’ve introduced today.”
Watch the 10-minute recap of the entire event below.
Forward-Looking Statements
The discussion above contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking. For example, the words “will,” “expect,” “potential,” and similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and management’s belief about future events and trends, and are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which may adversely affect our business and results of operations, including, but not limited to, our ability to attract and retain users and monetize our products and services; competition; risks associated with our international operations and growth; risks associated with our new products or services and our emphasis on long-term over short-term results; our ability to predict, recommend, and play content that our users enjoy; our ability to maintain the integrity of our technology structure and systems or the security of confidential information; and other risks as set forth in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
Earlier today, CEO Daniel Ek shared the following note about the company’s organizational changes with all Spotify employees.
Team,
As we say in our Band Manifesto, change is the only constant. For this reason, I continue to reiterate that speed is the most defensible strategy a business can have. But speed alone is not enough. We must also operate with efficiency. It’s these two things together that will fuel our long-term success. With this in mind, I have some important news to share today.
While we have made great progress in improving speed in the last few years, we haven’t focused as much on improving efficiency. We still spend far too much time syncing on slightly different strategies, which slows us down. And in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance. So, in an effort to drive more efficiency, control costs, and speed up decision-making, I have decided to restructure our organization.
To start, we are fundamentally changing how we operate at the top. To do this, I will be centralizing the majority of our engineering and product work under Gustav as Chief Product Officer and the business areas under Alex as Chief Business Officer. I’m happy to say that Gustav and Alex, who have been with Spotify for a long time and have done great work, will be leading these teams as co-presidents, effectively helping me run the company day-to-day. They’ll tell you more about what this means in the coming days, but I’m confident that with their leadership, we’ll be able to achieve great things for Spotify.
Personally, these changes will allow me to get back to the part where I do my best work—spending more time working on the future of Spotify—and I can’t wait to share more about all the things we have coming.
As a part of this change, Dawn Ostroff has decided to depart Spotify. Dawn has made a tremendous mark not only on Spotify, but on the audio industry overall. Because of her efforts, Spotify grew our podcast content by 40x, drove significant innovation in the medium and became the leading music and podcast service in many markets. These investments in audio offered new opportunities for music and podcast creators and also drove new interest in the potential of Spotify’s audio advertising. Thanks to her work, Spotify was able to innovate on the ads format itself and more than double the revenue of our advertising business to €1.5 billion. We are enormously grateful for the pivotal role she has played and wish her much success. In the near term, Dawn will assume the role of senior advisor to help facilitate this transition. Alex will take on the responsibility for the content, advertising and licensing work going forward and you’ll hear more from him on that.
The need to become more efficient
That brings me to the second update. As part of this effort, and to bring our costs more in line, we’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our number of employees.
Over the next several hours, one-on-one conversations will take place with all impacted employees. And while I believe this decision is right for Spotify, I understand that with our historic focus on growth, many of you will view this as a shift in our culture. But as we evolve and grow as a business, so must our way of working while still staying true to our core values.
To offer some perspective on why we are making this decision, in 2022, the growth of Spotify’s OPEX outpaced our revenue growth by 2X. That would have been unsustainable long-term in any climate, but with a challenging macro environment, it would be even more difficult to close the gap. As you are well aware, over the last few months we’ve made a considerable effort to rein-in costs, but it simply hasn’t been enough. So while it is clear this path is the right one for Spotify, it doesn’t make it any easier—especially as we think about the many contributions these colleagues have made.
Like many other leaders, I hoped to sustain the strong tailwinds from the pandemic and believed that our broad global business and lower risk to the impact of a slowdown in ads would insulate us. In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth. And for this reason, today, we are reducing our employee base by about 6% across the company. I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today.
My focus now is on ensuring that every employee is treated fairly as they depart. While Katarina will provide more detail on all of the specifics around the ways we are committed to supporting these talented bandmates, the following will apply to all impacted employees:
Severance pay: We will start with a baseline for all employees with the average employee receiving approximately 5 months of severance. This will be calculated based on local notice period requirements and employee tenure.
PTO: All accrued and unused vacation will be paid out to any departing employee.
Healthcare: We will continue to cover healthcare for employees during their severance period.
Immigration support: For employees whose immigration status is connected with their employment, HRBPs are working with each impacted individual in concert with our mobility team.
Career Support:All employees will be eligible for outplacement services for 2 months.
What’s Next
In almost all respects, we accomplished what we set out to do in 2022 and our overall business continues to perform nicely. But 2023 marks a new chapter. It’s my belief that because of these tough decisions, we will be better positioned for the future. We have ambitious goals and nothing has changed in our commitment to achieving them.
We’ve come a long way in our efforts to build a comprehensive platform for creators of all levels, but there’s still much to be done. To truly become the go-to destination for creators, we need to keep improving our tools and technology, explore new ways to help creators engage with their audiences, grow their careers, and monetize their work.
In fact, looking at our roadmap, with the changes we are making and what we have planned to share at our upcoming Stream On event, I’m confident that 2023 will be a year where consumers and creators will see a steady stream of innovations unlike anything we have introduced in the last several years. I will share more about these exciting developments in the coming weeks.
Finally, I hope you will join me tomorrow for Unplugged.
And again, for those of you who are leaving, I thank you for everything you’ve done for Spotify and wish you every future success.
Earlier this month, we all had a chance to revisit what we listened to most in 2022 with Wrapped. From the year’s top artist (congrats on the three-peat, Bad Bunny) to identifying our listening personalities (where the “Deep Divers” at?), fans worldwide shared their listening habits. But that’s only the icing on the cake. The year also saw new content offerings such as audiobooks and more programs to support diverse and underrepresented voices, all designed to bring the best experience to listeners and creators.
Ring in 2023 by reliving Spotify’s highlights from 2022.
Commitment to platform safety
At the start of the year, we shared several actions we’re taking to balance creator expression with safety, including publishing our Platform Rules and taking steps to ensure creators and users alike understand what’s permitted on Spotify. This summer, we unveiled the Spotify Safety Advisory Council, an interdisciplinary group of experts that are providing our teams with an outside-in view of the safety landscape and helping us ensure that our products and policies address the needs and concerns of our users, creators, and artists around the world.
Acquisitions expand our offerings
Early in the year, we acquired two podcast technology companies: Podsights, a podcast advertising measurement service, and Chartable, a podcast analytics platform. This move helped us uplevel measurement for podcast advertising and give publishers a new way to grow their business through insights and promotions tools.
Over the summer, we closed on the acquisition of Findaway, a global leader in digital audiobook distribution. Findaway works across the audiobook ecosystem with a platform and offerings that serve authors, publishers, and consumers. Their technology and know-how helped accelerate Spotify’s entry into audiobooks earlier this fall.
As the world’s leading audio streaming platform, it made perfect sense to bring Heardle, the beloved interactive music game to Spotify. It has provided a fun and innovative way to help fans discover new songs and artists.
We also acquired Kinzen, a global leader in protecting online communities from harmful content. Our partnership with the Dublin-based company, which began in 2020, has been critical to enhancing our approach to platform safety. The company’s technology and unique approach helps Spotify better understand, prepare for, and prevent abuse trends from emerging on our platform.
Frequency carves out a spot for Black creators
We expanded Frequency, our global initiative and holistic destination for celebrating Black art, entertainment, creativity, culture, and community both on- and off-platform, with even more opportunities for Black creators. In addition to on-platform hubs and playlists, we hosted The Free Studio, a four-day residency that brought together nine Black musicians and creators. Spotify’s popular playlist Ripple Effect continued the Frequency Sunday Dinner series in Houston, as well as cities across California.
Helping diversify the voices of podcasting
Programs like Sound Up, the Creator Equity Fund, and RADAR for Podcasters help underrepresented voices and emerging talent in the audio space. From education and workshops to on-platform amplification, these initiatives give creators the tools they need to tell their story. In October, we introduced the Africa Podcast Fund, a first-of-its-kind initiativeto support burgeoning podcasters through financial grants, workshops, and networking opportunities. In December, we launched Elevate for Podcasters in partnership with the Inevitable Foundation. The program empowers professional podcasters with disabilities, providing the funding, mentorship, equipment, and accommodations they need to level up their careers.
Introducing User Choice Billing with Google
Our multi-year agreement with Google represents a first-of-its-kind option in payment choice with opportunities for both consumers and developers. Users who’ve downloaded Spotify from the Google Play Store are presented with the choice to pay with either Spotify’s payment system or Google Play Billing. These two options living side-by-side in the app give users the freedom to subscribe and make purchases, using the payment option of their choice. With this announcement and our partnership, Google is allowing more choice and competition—decisive steps that demonstrate how platforms should work.
Blend it up
Blend combines the best of Spotify’s personalization capabilities and collaborative playlist functionality into a single shared playlist. In 2022, we took Blend to a whole new level. Users can now Blend with up to 10 people or they can Blend with artists like Lizzo,Post Malone,and Charli XCX. Fans also have the opportunity to shop artist merch from the Blend experience. Blend represents another way we can give artists a new oportunity to interact with fans, and to bring added personalization to a listener’s music experience.
Playing with video
In 2022 we expanded video podcasting to Anchor creators in over 180 global markets. Podcasters love having the option to accompany their audio with visual components, and fans get the opportunity to deeply connect with the content. We also introduced Spotify Podcast Subscriptions for video podcasts, an integration with Riverside (the go-to platform for remote recording), embeddable video, video bulk-replace, video-specific analytics, and interactive podcast features, such as polls and Q&A.
Celebrating EQUAL’s first anniversary
Since its launch, EQUAL has spotlighted women artists through global partnerships, activations, new content experiences, and on- and off-platform support. April marked the program’s one year anniversary. Among EQUAL’s major accomplishments: listeners streamed more than 13 million hours of program artists in the first month of joining.
Reimagining with Roblox
We entered the virtual universe Roblox to create Spotify Island, an audio paradise where fans and artists from all over the world can connect and explore exclusive sounds, quests, and merch. We enhanced the experience during the year with K-Park and Planet Hip-Hop.
Spotify and FC Barcelona team up on the field
In July, we kicked off a partnership with FC Barcelona, becoming the Main Partner of the Club as well as the Official Audio Streaming Partner. We joined the team in Miami during the club’s preseason tour and brought artists like Ovy on the Drums, Piso 21, and Mau y Ricky along for the fun. Through the in-stadium LEDs and our other marketing channels, we promoted artists of all sizes from around the world including BLACKPINK, FireboyDML, MeganTheeStallion, Aitch, Pomme, Feid, and RigobertaBandini. For FC Barcelona’s October El Clásico showdown—one of the most iconic events in all of sport—we celebrated Drake’s 50 billion streams by creating a limited-edition kit. Get more details on this multiyear partnership on our Spotify: For the Record podcast.
Upping the ante with audiobooks
This fall, we introduced audiobooks to listeners in the U.S., the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. With more than 300,000 titles on the platform, we are giving book lovers a new way to enjoy storytelling on Spotify.
Time to play fair
We believe everyone benefits when competition is fair. Unfortunately, Apple does not, and they’ve consistently abused their dominant position to favor their own services, stifle innovation and hurt consumers. This year, we continued to urge policymakers to take significant action to protect competition and consumers from Apple’s anticompetitive behavior. For more on this fight, listen to Spotify: For the Record, where entrepreneurs, U.S. senators, and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek discuss the importance of consumer choice.
Over the past few years, it’s become abundantly clear that Apple tilts the playing field. It does this in favor of its own services in order to disadvantage rivals and make it harder for companies like Spotify—and so many others—to compete. This behavior harms consumers and app developers—and it stifles innovation from companies just trying to get off the ground.
This is about much more than just Spotify, which is why we have publicly advocated for platform fairness and pushed for expanded payment options, among other things, for a number of years. We are committed to fighting for fair competition, which, in turn, will unleash innovation as well as choice for consumers.
Today, we released a special episode of Spotify: For the Record featuring a chorus of voices who are as passionately focused as we are on creating a level playing field for all. Tune in to hear from our CEO, Daniel Ek; U.S. Senators AmyKlobuchar (D-Minnesota), MarshaBlackburn (R-Tennessee), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut); Agrin Health CEO KarenThomas; Fanfix CEO HarryGestetner; Schibsted CEO KristinSkogenLund; and ProtonMail CEO AndyYen as they express their concerns about the impact of Apple’s unfair App Store rules on consumers and innovators alike and discuss the need for action.
Take a glimpse at what each of them had to say.
“Our view is quite simple. We think that there needs to be regulation in this space. We think it is one where it has to make it clear that you as a developer or a company should be able to interact with your consumers. You should have the ability to bring new innovations to the market on equal terms as the platforms themselves, and that there should be a choice for how these consumers should be able to pay for goods and services on these platforms. And that can’t be dictated by Apple.” –Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify
“The news that Apple plans to let rival app stores operate on iPhones in Europe shows that the arguments against our bill were simply scare tactics designed to stop it, and that’s why we must pass it.” – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
“At the end of the day, what I would ask Tim Cook is to please support my bill. If you’re not doing any of these bad things, why not support the bill? If you’re in favor of competition and innovation, support the bill. If you believe that there’s no unfair charges, or rents, or whatever—no copy and kill. Support the bill.” – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat, or Republican, or another party affiliation, app developers and innovators are saying we have an issue with market access and there is a way to solve this problem.” – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn
“I think we have to re-envision what an app store is and the boundaries and the barriers that they put up in terms of gatekeepers . . . Status quo isn’t even an option anymore. We’re at a fork in the road. So either we pass this legislation and we send a signal to Apple and Google to say that monopoly won’t work—you’re going to have to behave better and participate in a free market—or we don’t.” – Karen Thomas, CEO, Agrin Health
“I do think the majority of Gen Z is probably pretty unaware, but it’s going to take things like this and small businesses speaking out, creators speaking out, waking consumers up to the fact that this is going on and this is impacting their daily lives.” – Harry Gestetner, co-CEO, Fanfix
“Probably almost the worst issue is that Apple blocks us from having access to data about our own customers. So that means we don’t know what kind of subscriptions our customers have bought via the Apple system. It means that we will either lose our business altogether or we will have very unhappy customers.” – Kristin Skogen Lund, CEO, Schibsted
“The lack of people speaking up isn’t because there is no problem. The lack of people speaking up is actually a sign of the problem because people are so afraid that they’re just afraid to even say anything. And if that is the state of the Internet today, then I think that’s a terrible place for the world to be.” – Andy Yen, CEO, ProtonMail
And they’re all coming together with more than any single company at stake: “I’m fighting not because of just Spotify, but because I truly, at the core of my being, believe this is right,” Daniel Ek noted in the episode. “And it’s very important for the future of the economy and for app developers and creators alike.”
We know that fair and open platforms enable better consumer experiences and allow developers to grow and thrive. When this happens, everybody wins.
We believe consumers win when competition is not only promised, but guaranteed. Consumers and creators benefit when they can more easily connect and enjoy the latest and greatest innovations without hurdles. Apple continues to stand in the way of Spotify’s and other developers’ abilities to provide a seamless user experience, and its restrictions hurt both creators and consumers alike.
Spotify’s recent launch of Audiobooks in the U.S. is the perfect example of just how far Apple will go to disadvantage competitors. The Audiobooks purchase flow that Apple’s rules force us to provide consumers today is far too complicated and confusing — confusing because they change the rules arbitrarily, making them impossible to interpret. Bottom line, we’re forced to make users work even harder to listen to an audiobook. This harms not only consumers, but, this time, also authors and publishers who now find themselves under Apple’s thumb. We believe there is huge potential to grow the audiobooks market and get more authors heard by new listeners—but the purchase flow we’ve been forced into is artificially limiting that growth.
“Almost four years. That’s how long it’s been since Spotify filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission, and we are still waiting on a decision. And while we wait, Apple continues to dictate what online innovation looks like, doing serious harm to the internet economy, choking competition and the imagination of app developers. In the absence of government intervention—in Europe, the U.S., or any other market around the world—Apple has shown time and again that it will not self-regulate and has no real incentive to change. With our Audiobooks launch, Apple has once again proven just how brazen it is willing to be with its App Store rules, constantly shifting the goalposts to disadvantage their competitors.”
In March 2019, Spotify took the bold step of filing a complaint against Apple with the European Commission for anti-competitive behavior and abuse of dominance in the music streaming market. For years, Apple has consistently tilted the playing field in favor of its own services to disadvantage rivals, stifle innovation, and make it harder for companies like Spotify to compete.
But it’s not just Spotify who’s impacted.
Nearly every consumer now owns a smartphone and uses it as their primary means of accessing services on the internet, which means everyone is impacted, putting the internet economy at risk.
Fast-forward to today, and the European Commission, while having built its own strong case against Apple over the last few years, still hasn’t brought the case to conclusion. This is especially problematic as we’ve seen Apple seek to circumvent or outright defy regulations in other markets around the world in order to evade meaningful changes to their behavior.
This is why Spotify CEO Daniel Ek—joined by Global Head of Public Affairs Dustee Jenkins, General Counsel Eve Konstan, and others from our team—traveled to Brussels, the seat of the Commission, for a full day of meetings and events earlier this month. This included time with key Commissioners to ask that they deliver a robust decision against Apple as soon as possible, because the internet moves fast, and every day that passes without any action erodes companies’ ability to innovate on behalf of consumers—not just in Europe, but around the world. Remedies must be levied to drive impact. Otherwise, Apple will have no real incentive to change.
But the Apple case wasn’t the only issue on our agenda. We shared our thoughts around the remarkable work the Commission has done to advance Europe’s digital economy, and the leadership role it has taken with the recent landmark tech regulations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA). While we applaud these efforts, we don’t see the DMA specifically as a substitute to the case we filed in 2019. Instead, we view it as a much-needed complement and believe that a decision on our case is still key to ensuring significant and lasting change.
We also spent time with students at Vlerick Business School, where Daniel discussed leadership, the importance of healthy debate, the challenges of continuous innovation, and Spotify’s relentless focus on speed and building culture and resiliency. He also talked about his desire to unleash Europe’s entrepreneurial potential and the role of business in driving meaningful solutions to some of society’s biggest issues. And realizing this is only possible when there is a level playing field.
The day concluded with a Spotify-hosted reception that featured a fireside chat with Daniel moderated by renowned Brussels-based commentator Shada Islam and a musical performance by award-winning Belgian singer-songwriter and RADAR artist Meskerem Mees. During the conversation, Daniel reaffirmed just how critical it is to keep fair competition at the top of the Commission’s agenda, given the billions of developers and consumers who are at the mercy of gatekeeper platforms like Apple.
Fair and open platforms enable better consumer experiences and allow developers to innovate, grow, and thrive. Spotifybelieves we have a duty to ensure that we’re helping to pave pathways to success for start-ups out there just looking for a shot. So we’ll continue to engage on these topics and advocate for an ecosystem in which fair competition is not only encouraged, but guaranteed.
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