Tag: New market

‘Stream On,’ Q4 Earnings, and Our Launch in South Korea: Learn More on the ‘Spotify: For the Record’ Podcast

February 4, 2021

Our latest Spotify: For the Record episode dives into our biggest headlines of the week. Dustee Jenkins, Head of Global Communications, sits down with CEO Daniel Ek and CFO Paul Vogel to discuss yesterday’s fourth-quarter earnings results. The trio touches on the company’s outlook, our end-of-year Wrapped campaign, the continued rise in podcasts, and other Q4 highlights.

Dustee also queries Daniel about Spotify’s recently announced “Stream On” event. You can check out their full conversation in the episode, but in the meantime, find a brief behind-the-scenes preview of what will happen on February 22 below.

 

Finally, we travel from Stockholm to Seoul to discuss Spotify’s launch this week in the sixth-biggest music market in the world: South Korea. David Park, our Managing Director there, joins us as we talk about the magnitude of this expansion.

Ready to dig in? Check out the episode here.

Spotify Launches in South Korea

February 1, 2021

Today, Spotify is launching in the sixth-largest music market in the world: South Korea.* Koreans can now access over 60 million tracks and over 4 billion playlists from around the world, as well as enjoy personalized music recommendations and discover new music. Music lovers in Korea can stream Spotify’s broad music catalogue, spanning everything from the country’s own K-Pop to Latin American reggaeton, European electronic, and beyond. 

Korea’s launch brings Spotify’s global footprint to 93 markets and is a critical next step in our global expansion journey. “We always want to be where the listeners and artists are, and South Korea is rich in both,” says Alex Norström, Chief Freemium Business Officer, Spotify. “This launch presents a massive opportunity for us to not only further our mission of bringing new and quality content to more audiences, but also help local Korean artists tap into Spotify’s 320 million listeners worldwide. We hope to create more opportunities for Korean artists across all genres to be discovered by listeners around the world.”

Since we debuted our first K-Pop playlist in 2014, the share of K-Pop listening on Spotify has increased by more than 2,000%—but music in Korea spans far beyond K-Pop. As a part of today’s launch, we’re introducing a range of new playlists made exclusively for South Korea. These curated collections offer the latest music from our team of Korean music experts across some of the most popular genres. Get ready for:

This Week on the ‘Spotify: For the Record’ Podcast, Explore New Markets and New Partnerships

August 27, 2020

A lot has been happening this week at Spotify; we shared news of our League of Legends esports partnership with Riot Games and celebrated our one-month anniversary in Russia with a look at the top-streamed songs and artists in the market. On this week’s episode of our new podcast Spotify: For the Record, we take listeners behind the scenes of these big strategic moves for the company. 

First up, we talk to Naz Aletaha, Head of Global Esports Partnerships at Riot Games, about League of Legends and the new Spotify hub that will feature a variety of music, podcasts, and playlists inspired by the gaming community. Then, we spend time digging into the data for our latest market launch in Russia and have a listen to the top streaming songs of the moment.

But that’s not all we dive into in this episode. Finally, to provide more insight into our business strategy—and what moves like launching in Russia have to do with it—Paul Vogel, our Chief Financial Officer, joins Morgan Stanley media analyst Ben Swinburne.

Take a listen below.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/06Rexru3OWnCtQ4JNj2ubA?si=0Vun6_rERISYH-ZV0IarWA

Want more? Check out other episodes of Spotify: For the Record here.

 

This episode is no longer available as of November 2021, however you can get more great stories and news delivered audibly by following our podcasts, Spotify: For the Record, Spotify: Mic Check, and Spotify: Discover This.