Spotify is a powerhouse in the music streaming world. Not only is it the oldest streaming service still around today (launched in 2008!), but it continues to dominate in popularity year after year.
It may have taken the company a grueling two years to reach the 1 million subscriber milestone back in its infancy, but Spotify has attracted new users rapidly since then. And it seems that no matter how big Spotify gets, it just never stops growing. For example, in the first quarter of 2021, Spotify reported an eye-watering 158 million premium subscribers, up from 130 million by the same point in 2020. And those are just the paying customers – there are plenty more people who are content to listen to a few annoying ads if it means they can listen to their favorite tunes.
In short, Spotify’s continued growth has made it a household name and a pop-culture cornerstone. So, if for no other reason than those, we believe Spotify deserves a closer look. With this in mind, let’s put the world’s most influential music streaming service under the microscope by looking at the latest Spotify statistics.
The Need to Know Spotify Statistics
It currently has 365 million users and 165 million subscribers (Q2 2021)
While many businesses with hugely successful products can identify a point in time when customer sentiment shifted, and their product took off, this can’t be said for Spotify. Just looking at raw numbers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Spotify’s success came in leaps. For example, it had 1 million subscribers in 2011, 18 million in 2015, and now 165 million in 2021. However, when you study the graph of subscribers numbers year on year, it’s clear that Spotify’s rise to the top was a steady one.
It hosts over 70 million tracks, including more than 2.9 million podcast titles.
While most people think of music when they hear the brand Spotify, the company has also played an instrumental role in the rise of podcasts. In 2018, podcast listening grew 175% on the platform, which convinced Spotify that podcasts needed more attention. It was in 2019 that Spotify really doubled down on podcasts, buying renowned podcast networks Gimlet and Anchor in a joint deal worth $340 million. At the time, head of Spotify Studios Courtney Holt said, “The first step was to make sure that we’ve got the world’s best podcasts on Spotify, and integrated the experience into the service in a way that allowed people to build habits and behavior there,”.
In other words, Spotify realized their future was audio, not music.
Spotify is now available in 178 markets after expanding into a further 85 markets in 2021.
In February 2021, the company announced its service was set to launch in 85 new markets, mostly in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Countries included Nigeria, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, all of which have a growing population of internet users.
As of 2017, consumers had spent a cumulative 40.3 billion hours listening to content on the platform.
To put 40 billion hours into perspective, the average human spends 692,040 hours on Earth! Interestingly, just one year earlier (2016), this figure stood at 26.7 billion hours. Now in 2021, the figure is likely much higher again.
Spotify is way ahead of its competitors, with the latest estimates putting Apple Music at 72 million users, Amazon Music at 55 million, and YouTube Music at 30 million.
Although Spotify remains the most popular music streaming service overall, its competitors aren’t insignificant. For example, in 2019, Apple Music overtook Spotify in terms of paid subscribers in the US for the first time. However, beyond the US, the picture looks much different. At the time, Spotify said of its 96 million premium subscribers, 67 million came from outside of North America (US and Canada).
Spotify has paid over 21 billion Euros (close to 25 billion dollars) in revenue to rights holders since its launch. It paid over $5 billion in royalties in 2020 alone!
Spotify’s royalty system has received criticism in the past, with some artists claiming the current system is unfair and doesn’t adequately compensate smaller artists. Earlier this year, Apple Music, in a bold move, told artists that it pays double Spotify’s average streaming royalties. According to Apple, its streaming service pays one cent per stream, in contrast with Spotify’s one-third to half a cent per stream. Will Spotify attempt to close the gap in the future? We’ll have to wait and see.
Who’s Using Spotify? The Demographics
Spotify has a young following, with most users (55%) being under the age of 35. The biggest age group in terms of users is millennials at 29% and Gen Z at 26%. (Feb 2020)
It’s perhaps not surprising that Spotify is popular with a younger audience (those more likely to engage with digital media). However, that isn’t to say other generations aren’t using Spotify – a significant 19% of users are over the age of 55.
In terms of gender, the latest research (2018) found that 56% of users were male, and 44% were female.
How Are People Using Spotify? Behaviour Statistics
Despite 44% of the user base being female, only 22.6% of all Spotify listeners stream music from female or mixed-gender artists.
Breaking these statistics down a little further, the data shows that female listeners stream music from female or mixed-gender artists more than their male peers. Women stream 31.8% from these groups, whereas men only stream 18.2% from female or mixed-gender artists.
Referred to as the “gender gap,” this behavior could be partially down to Spotify’s recommendation algorithm. A team of scientists from Barcelona accessed 333,00 users’ listening habits over nine years and found some surprising results. They discovered that the first recommendation was typically a male artist, as were the following six recommendations. On average, users had to wait until the seventh or eighth track to get a female artist. The researchers analyzed several music streaming apps and found male artists were listened to and recommended over female artists.
Part of the reason for the gap could be the “feedback loop” effect. Essentially, if you are exposed to more male artists, you’re more likely to find your favorites within this group and seek similar artists in the future.
Further supporting this theory, when listeners play their personalized Discover Weekly playlists (algorithm-based), they only stream 18.6% from female artists – considerably worse than when they choose the music themselves.
According to the most recent data, the average user spends 25 hours a month listening to content on Spotify.
As of 2021, the most listened-to artists on the platform are Drake, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Post Malone, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Eminem, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and J Balvin.
A whopping 55% users have registered on Spotify via their Facebook accounts rather than direct signup.
Spotify has made it easier than ever to create an account by offering social media integration.
Business Statistics and Market Trends
As of August 2021, Spotify has made 22 acquisitions and six investments. To date, they have spent over $834 million on purchases.
The company’s most notable acquisitions were Megaphone (for $235M in Nov 2020), The Ringer (for $196M in Feb 2020), Gimlet (for $ 194M in Feb 2019). The latest was Podz, which it purchased in June 2021 for an undisclosed figure.
As of June 2021, Spotify has 365 monthly active users.
Podcasts were one of the few areas to have braved the pandemic without sustaining ad spending losses.
Spotify currently holds 32% of the market share.
In 2019, Spotify had 36% of the market share, with Apple Music coming in at 18%, Amazon at 13%, and other music streaming services like Google (YouTube), Tencent, and others, coming in at 10% and under each. However, just two years on, things are starting to shift. Spotify’s market share has dipped as its rivals catch up. For example, YouTube Music grew 60% in 2020, while Tencent Music grew 40%.
In Q1 of 2021, Spotify generated revenue of over 2.14 billion euros, up from 1.85 billion in the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal period
What’s on Spotify? Other Content Statistics
- An eye-watering 60,000 new songs are added to Spotify each day (that’s a new track every 1.4 seconds!). However, nearly 20% of all songs hosted on the app have never been played.
- There are 2 billion playlists on the platform.
- Joe Rogan’s podcast called The Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast on Spotify.
Final Thoughts
Despite its shrinking market share, Spotify is still the reigning king of the music streaming world and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, the company will need to continue to adapt to new trends and make the right investments. But if its clever move into podcasts is anything to go by, Spotify doesn’t have anything to worry about. We expect to see Spotify move into new markets and attract more users in the near future.