Music has been a part of almost everyone’s lives for centuries, however, the way people consumed music has evolved drastically in recent times.

In the distant past, music can only be heard through live performances. The invention of the phonograph revolutionized how people consumed music. It allowed them to continuously listen to their favorite music without the hassle of going to the concert hall or playing instruments at home. Then came the vinyl records and radio. By the late 20th century, people are already listening to music via portable devices like the Walkman. CDs and mp3 players also dominated the early 21st century.

Nowadays, music streaming is the status quo. Through the use of your smart devices, millions of tracks can now be enjoyed at the tip of your fingers. Below, we delve deeper into up-to-date and relevant statistics regarding one of the biggest streaming giants: Spotify.

Spotify Global Statistics

The advancement of technology and the invention of the internet made music widely available for almost everyone on the globe. The arrival of Spotify in 2008 marked the imminent rise of the streaming era. From then, Spotify continued to thrive, and perpetually changed how the music industry works. Now, small artists can put out their work without the help of record labels.

However, artists and musicians were threatened by this new and unfamiliar entity that is changing the traditional business model of their industry. Moreover, there are claims that Spotify was unfairly compensating artists. In 2014, global superstar Taylor Swift fought for artists’ rights when she pulled out her entire catalog on the platform as a protest against Spotify. In effect, Spotify reviewed and changed their terms and conditions in favor of the artists.

By the late 2010s, Spotify and other streaming platforms took over the industry. The statistics below will give you a clearer picture of how big Spotify is worldwide.

• On Facebook, the largest social media platform, Spotify has over 22 million followers.
• Spotify is available in 79 countries and operates through different companies in different regions.
• Spotify’s website was visited by 243.5 million unique monthly visitors in January 2020 worldwide.
• Almost 4000 people are employed by Spotify in 2019.
• Spotify is one of the top five entertainment apps in the US.
• Listening on Spotify consumes 2.40MB per minute, which sums up to 115.2MB every hour for premium users.
• There are over 35 million songs available for streaming on Spotify.

Spotify Users Statistics

Spotify is one of the first platforms to put in place a freemium model. In turn, this scheme attracted thousands of internet users looking forward to listening to “free” music. In the first quarter of 2011, Spotify announced a consumer base of one million paying users across the European region. Since then, the number of Spotify users and subscribers has continuously grown. Just take a look at the numbers below.

• As of Q1 of 2019, there were 100 million Spotify subscribers.
• There were 217 million monthly active users in the first quarter of 2019.
• Subscribers increased to 130 million in the first quarter of 2020.
• Spotify reported an increase of monthly active users in Q1 2020 with 286 million users.
• Experts predict that Spotify’s user base in the US can grow up to 93.4 million by 2023.
• As of the first half of 2019, Spotify accounted for 36% of the total 304.9 million music subscribers worldwide.
• Europe comprises the largest userbase of Spotify accounting for 36% of its users and 40% of its premium subscribers.
• In 2019, it was estimated that 65.6 million Internet users use Spotify at least once a month.

Spotify Usage Statistics

Spotify aims to bring music to all people of all ages across the globe. With their ever-growing user base, it’s no surprise that more and more people are spending their time in the app. The statistics below will show who and how Spotify users spend their time in-app.

• Spotify’s main demographic is users between 18 and 34 years old.
• In 2017, the average monthly time spent listening to Spotify content was 25 hours.
• People around the world spent 40.3 billion hours listening to Spotify in 2017.
• On average, 146.19 minutes were spent by paid users in the US listening to Spotify as of June 2019.
• Free users spent 127.7 minutes using Spotify.
• Spotify is one of the most popular mobile apps in the US.
• 52% of its users like to listen to Spotify using mobile phones and tablets.

Spotify Artists Statistics

Pure-sales are slowly getting overshadowed by streaming. Nowadays, it’s an amazing feat if an artist manages to pull 1 million album sales on the first week of their album’s release. It is a fact that music streaming platforms are one of the major revenue channels for most artists today. According to Chart Data, for an artist to sell one album unit, they have to amass an equivalent of 1,250 premium streams or 3,750 free streams.

Spotify also has a feature exclusively for artists. This allows artists to see how many streams they have gained and more. For users, there’s a feature called Spotify Wrapped where Spotify compiles all of the streaming activities each unique user made from January 1st to October 31st of that year. The numbers below will show you top artists and songs on Spotify.

• As of December 2019, there were 4 billion playlists on Spotify.
• Currently, there are 50 million available tracks on Spotify.
• Post Malone is the most-streamed artist with over 6.5 billion streams in 2019.
• In 2019, Billie Eilish’s album “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?” surpassed 6 billion streams.
• Billie is the first female artist to have her album top the Wrapped most-streamed album category.
• The third most-streamed artist of 2019 was Ariana Grande.
• Ariana Grande’s “7 rings” garnered the biggest streams in a week with 71.5 million.
• “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is the top streamed song not released in the last decade in 2019.
• The most followed artist on the platform is Ed Sheeran with 63 million followers.
• Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” remains as the most-streamed song on the platform with almost 2.5 streams.
• “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello was 2019’s most-streamed song, hitting 1 billion streams.
• As of April 29, 2020, The Weeknd is the number one artist on Spotify with 63.2 million monthly listeners.
• To earn an equivalent of a monthly minimum wage in the US, an artist needs to amass 336,842 streams in 2019.
• In 2019, an artist earns $0.00437 per play on the platform.

Spotify Podcasts Statistics

According to Spotify, they want to become the number one audio platform in the world. Which makes their investment in improving their podcast content a great move towards their goal.

• Spotify currently has 1 million podcasts available for streaming.
• Comedy is the top podcast genre for 2019.
• The Joe Budden Podcast with Rory & Mal is the top podcast of 2019.
• Spotify’s podcast audience has grown by more than 50% since the start of the year.

Spotify Revenue Statistics

Like all businesses, Spotify naturally aims to be profitable, and behind the growing user base and time spent in the app, it isn’t always easy for Spotify. According to one of their recent annual reports, they’ve incurred a net loss of almost $80 million in 2019. Check out other interesting Spotify revenue-related statistics below.

• Spotify reported an almost $6 billion in revenue in 2018.
• In the Q3 of 2019 alone, Spotify’s total revenue was $1.9 billion.
• Q3 2019’s revenue grew 28%, compared to the same quarter the previous year when it was $1.514 billion.
• Spotify’s net loss for 2019 was almost $80 million.
• Spotify has invested $651.7 million in research and development in 2019.
• Over $16 Billion paid to rightsholders since launch.

The Future is Streaming

One thing’s for sure: Spotify can surely entertain you.

With a catalog of over millions of songs and millions of playlists, this music streaming platform has something to offer to you. Spotify is also investing in building its podcast content. They’ve acquired thousands of titles this year and have made the app friendlier for any budding podcast content creators.

Spotify also made a move towards a better compensation package for artists. This makes for an effective way to attract more up-and-coming musicians to upload their music on the platform.

And even with a freemium model, Spotify proves to be a profitable investment. Reporting a positive year-over-year growth, the music streaming platform shows no sign of slowing down.

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1. Taylor Swift Abruptly Pulls Entire Catalog From Spotify
2. Spotify – Home | Facebook
3. Spotify — Company Info
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5. US SEC | Spotify Technology S.A.
6. Top U.S. mobile entertainment apps by users 2019 | Statista
7. Set Spotify streaming quality to Extreme – Business Insider
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10. Spotify Reports First Quarter 2020 Earnings — Spotify
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15. U.S. Music Streaming Giants Are Now Mobile Audience Heavyweights…
16. Top U.S. mobile entertainment apps by reach 2019 | Statista
17. Spotify Makes The Shift To Mobile With 52% Of Listening Now On Phones And
18. Spotify Weekly Chart Totals – Global
19. The Top Songs, Artists, Playlists, and Podcasts of 2019—and the Last Decade
20. Ed Sheeran on Spotify
21. The Weeknd on Spotify
22. What Streaming Music Services Pay (Updated for 2019)