Without a doubt, the growing YouTube figures, Spotify stats, and Apple Music numbers didn’t only change the music industry — they also changed the way we listen to music.
Some might recall those ancient times when we stored music on our devices, or even those prehistoric periods when we’d use CDs when we wanted to listen to our favorite songs.
Now, our favorite artists are only a few clicks or swipes away. So how did Spotify manage to turn the entire music industry on its head? Let’s find out.
Top 10 Spotify Statistics
- In early 2021, Spotify’s estimated market cap was $67 billion.
- There are roughly 70 million songs on the platform.
- Spotify revenue climbed to $9.5 billion in 2020.
- Spotify’s total valuation was around $29.5 billion in 2019.
- Spotify’s average revenue per user fell by 8% this year.
- In Q4 2020, Europe had the most Spotify users — 121 million.
- 29% of US Spotify users are between 25 and 34 years old.
- On average, a Spotify user engages with the service 61 times a month.
- Spotify had 1 million users only five months after launch.
- Spotify also has more than 1.9 million podcast titles.
General Spotify Stats and Facts
To kick things off, let’s learn a bit about the service’s beginnings, financial figures, market share, and other more or less business- and finance-related things.
Let’s see how this Swedish service became one of the most influential factors in the music industry.
1. The service was developed in Sweden in 2006 and launched two years later.
(BBC)
At first, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon offered a free service for music fans hoping that future Spotify trends and growing popularity will enable them to upgrade to a $13.99 ad-free subscription.
2. The working prototype of Spotify (Spotify AB) was developed in just four months.
(Product Habits)
The following year, 2007, the fully operational prototype entered the closed beta stage.
Even though this is lightning-fast development, the company’s experts had to work tirelessly as Ek was obsessed with creating a responsive and technically lightweight product.
These are exciting facts, even when comparing them to the latest startup stats.
(Counterpoint Research)
Key Spotify statistics from 2020 also show that the service leads in terms of paid subscriptions with 33%.
Apple Music was second on the list last year in terms of revenue with a 25% share of the market and a 21% subscription share.
4. From Q1 2015 to Q4 2020, Spotify managed to gain more than 137 million paying subscribers.
(Statista)
Even though Spotify yearly stats show steadily growing figures throughout the quarters, the number of paying listeners started to increase a bit steeper in 2017, nearly doubling by 2019.
5. In the early months of 2021, Spotify’s estimated market cap was $67 billion.
(Music Business Worldwide)
More precisely, $66.94 billion. What’s exciting about these figures is the fact that a year ago, in mid-March 2020, the companý’s market cap was only $21.68 billion.
6. There are roughly 70 million songs on the platform.
(Spotify)
And on average, each day, the service adds 60,000 new songs. Along with the platform’s personalized suggestions and practically non-existent latency, their enormous media library is often considered Spotify’s main appeal.
7. Spotify revenue climbed to $9.5 billion in 2020.
(Billboard)
The service added 11 million paid subscribers and a respectable 14 million ad-supported users amidst the global pandemic.
8. The company’s total valuation was around $29.5 billion in 2019.
(Market Research Webflow)
This figure is nearly 1.25 times higher than the projection from its valuation just a year before.
The app also managed to generate around 20 million downloads in July 2019, making it the most downloaded music app that month.
9. Spotify’s average revenue per user fell by 8% this year.
(The Verge)
The latest Spotify stats from 2021 suggest that revenue per user on average decreased by 8% compared to a year ago, dropping to $5.13.
Experts state that this is because the service abandoned previous marketing plans used to lure in new subscribers.
Spotify Demographics
Every service needs users to become popular and lucrative. Luckily, Spotify has millions of them.
Let’s see which age group uses the service the most, which countries have the most avid Spotify users, and other interesting user/usage data.
10. In Q4 2020, Europe had the most Spotify users, with 121 million.
(Spotify)
In the same year, the total user count was 345 million (out of them, 155 million were paying subscribers).
Furthermore, Spotify end of year stats regarding user demographics showed that North America had 83 million users, Latin America 76 million, and the rest of the world counted more than 66 million additional users.
11. 29% of US Spotify users are between 25 and 34 years old.
(Market Research Webflow)
Also, data shows that Spotify’s audience is generally male (56% of the listeners) and on the younger end of the listener spectrum.
12. After only one year of being available in India, the service has been streamed in over 2,300 cities.
(Orissa Post)
On the other hand, Spotify user statistics for India suggest that it has more users in the 18–24 age group than any other country.
13. On average, a Spotify user engages with the service 61 times a month.
(Statista)
That roughly translates to two times a day. When looking at the competition, it’s safe to say that Spotify numbers are imposing, since, in the case of Pandora, user engagement averages out to 43 sessions per month.
When it comes to Apple Music, user engagement hovers at an average of 12 sessions a month.
14. Even though only 25% of the service’s active monthly users listen to podcasts, Spotify is consciously investing in them.
(The Motley Fool)
According to experts, this move is less about attracting more diverse Spotify user demographics and more about opening up additional revenue streams and opportunities for more targeted advertising options.
Furthermore, the company is also thinking about adding audio comic books to their lineup, with DC comics already working on nine different shows exclusively for Spotify.
15. Since the feature was launched, 55% of users have registered on Spotify via their Facebook accounts.
(Market Research Webflow)
Furthermore, when looking at Spotify user statistics by age, we can say that most users are between 25 and 34 years old.
More precisely, 29% of Spotify users are millennials, making it the largest generation group.
Also, when looking at gender breakdown, data from 2019 suggests that 44% of the listeners are women, while 56% are men.
Fun and Interesting Spotify Facts
In this last section of our list, let’s relax a bit and try to leave all those large numbers and statistical figures behind.
Instead, let’s focus more on more exciting Spotify trivia, like most-streamed artists, most popular albums, and other fun facts that can be connected to the service.
16. With an average of 33.3 million monthly listeners, Queen is the most popular rock band on Spotify.
(LoudWire)
According to Spotify listening stats, the British legends are the most popular rock band on the service. Coming in second are Australian rock superstars, AC/DC with 22.5 million monthly listeners.
Finally, third place goes to the American nu-metal band Linkin Park, with 21.2 million.
Old school thrash metal legends Metallica are “only” 12th on the list (with 15.9 million) even though they’ve been referenced countless times as the largest metal band on Earth.
17. The service reached the 1 million user milestone only five months after launch.
(Business Insider)
When listing stats for Spotify, a lot of sources will mention the fact that for a startup, the service got off to a great start.
Launched in 2008, the app quickly surpassed the 1 million user mark, and in 2011, the service already had more than 1 million paying subscribers.
18. Ed Sheeran, Post Malone ft. 21 Savage, and The Tones and I have almost 7 billion plays combined.
(Chart Masters)
And these are only for their most popular songs on the platform (Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” Malone’s “Rockstar,” and The Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey”).
19. Spotify also has more than 1.9 million podcast titles.
(Spotify)
Launched in 2020, these podcasts are becoming increasingly prominent in Spotify playlist statistics, thanks to a growing audience interested in this type of entertainment.
Speaking of which, The Joe Rogan Experience was the most popular podcast last year on the service.
20. Bad Bunny’s YHLQMDLG was the most popular album in 2020, with over 3.3 billion streams.
(Spotify)
Second on the most-streamed album list was the Weeknd’s After Hours, closely followed by Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding.
21. In 2021, hundreds of K-pop songs suddenly disappeared from Spotify.
(BBC)
Spotify artist statistics didn’t look that good earlier this year for South Korean bands such as Epik High, Monsta X, IU, and Sistar, as their songs suddenly disappeared from the service.
In an official statement, Spotify mentioned that its licensing deal with the bands’ distributor (Kakao M) came to an end.
The Korean company was quick to accuse Spotify of refusing to extend its license since Kakao M also owns South Korea’s top music streaming service, MelOn, which has a respectable active monthly user base of 8.81 million.
22. In 2018, Boston’s streams spiked a whopping 346% in Mexico before they played in the country’s capital.
(Spotify)
Spotify listening statistics that year already showcased that Mexico City might be the “Spotify Capital” in terms of listeners and streaming figures.
As for Boston, the legendary band has an active monthly listener fan base of 145,995 people in the city, making the rock group a pretty “big deal” in the Mexican capital.
23. Users can check their personal stats on several other websites, not just Spotify.
(Reddit)
Can you learn more about Spotify stats on Reddit? Of course, you can.
As a matter of fact, one user managed to create a list of more than 20 different websites that can help you manage the stats from the service and personalize the Spotify experience even more.
You can basically find everything on this forum, and these Reddit stats back that up.
24. Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande were the most-streamed female artists in 2020.
(Spotify)
More precisely, between January and March last year. According to those Spotify artist stats, Halsey and Camila Cabello were also among the top five female artists in the given period.
Among the most-streamed podcasts hosted by women, the most popular show was My Favorite Murderer with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark.
Furthermore, Crime Junkie, Call Her Daddy, Mordlust, and Morbid: A True Crime Podcast were also among the most popular options.
FAQ
What was the most played song on Spotify in 2020?
Data from Spotify suggests that The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” was the most popular song on the platform in 2020 with 1.6 billion streams, even though it was in second place during the summer.
The second and third spots go to Tones and I’s 2019 hit, “Dance Monkey” and Roddy Ricch’s song, “The Box.”
The fourth song on the most-streamed list is Imanbek’s and SAINt JHN’s “Roses — Imanbek Remix. Lastly, the fifth most-played song of last year was “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa.
When did Spotify get big?
Well, this mostly depends on what we consider “big.”
For example, by 2011, the app had around 1 million paying users (greatly influencing app usage and app download stats), more than 10 million tracks cataloged, and it operated across seven European countries.
At that time, the company managed to build up a great freemium growth engine (and had $100 million in its bank account), but it still needed more users to power that growth.
That year, the app launched in the US, and by 2013, it had 6 million paid subscribers.
A year later, that number more than doubled to 12.5 million, and in 2018, it hit a staggering 75 million subscribers. So, to answer the question, by 2018, Spotify was definitely big.
Who is the #1 artist on Spotify?
According to the latest Spotify figures, Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez were last year’s top artists.
On the other hand, among the most-streamed performers of all time, we have such influential artists as Drake, Ed Sheeran, Rihanna, Eminem, The Weeknd, Kanye West, and Coldplay.
Justin Bieber, Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande, Post Malone, Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Queen, and Adele are also among the most-streamed performers.
How much money is 100K streams on Spotify?
Older data suggests (based on SongTrust figures) that the average Spotify earning per play was only $0.0038 per song in 2018. Going by that number, artists who reach 100.000 should earn only $380 for that accomplishment.
What song has the most Spotify streams?
According to Spotify, the most-streamed song on the platform is Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.”
Experts estimate that the song has around 2.3 billion streams, which earned it a staggering $9.73 million in royalties since it was added to Spotify’s playlist in 2017.
How many users did Spotify have in 2020?
In the last quarter of 2020, the app had 155 million premium subscribers, a large leap from the previous year, when the premium subscriber base counted “only” 124 million paying members.
Overall, the app managed to drastically increase its user base in 2017 and 2018, posing as a force to be reckoned with ever since.
What is the average age of Spotify users?
Older available data suggests that in the US, the average user age (or the age group of the most populous user base) hovers between 25 and 34, as 29% of the users fall into this group.
The second-largest group is young adults between 18 and 24. A large chunk of users (19%) fall into the category of 55 and above, making them the third-largest user group.
Which country uses Spotify the most?
Since the most recent data is on the continent level, we can tell you that in 2019, Europe was the most avid Spotify-using region around the globe with a staggering 95 million monthly active users.
By that time, the Swedish streaming service also managed to become pretty popular in the Americas as well, with 27% of their monthly active users being from North America, and 22% from Latin America.
On the other hand, India has the largest number of Spotify users in the 18–24 age group when looking at the global market.
Who uses Spotify the most?
According to data from 2018, users from the North American market used the service for 140 minutes a day on average, making this region the most “prolific” user base.
The Middle East and Africa boasted an impressive 124 minutes daily, Latin America came in third place with 117 minutes, followed by Asia with 110 minutes.
Last but not least, was Europe with the largest number of active monthly users who only used the service 99 minutes a day on average.
How many people use Spotify?
The latest data from the fourth quarter of 2020 shows that the service has around 345 million active monthly users, and out of them, 155 million are premium subscribers.
Conclusion
By the looks of these figures, it’s evident that Spotify came, saw, and conquered, even though the service needed a little more time to accomplish the last part.
After a long strategic campaign to enter the North and South American market, Spotify managed to grow from a mostly European-based service to an entity of global magnitude.
Hopefully, these Spotify stats managed to depict its power and growth precisely.
Sources
- BBC
- BBC
- Billboard
- Business Insider
- Chart Masters
- Counterpoint Research
- LoudWire
- Market Research Webflow
- Music Business Worldwide
- NME
- Orissa Post
- Product Habits
- Spotify
- Spotify
- Spotify
- Spotify
- Spotify
- Spotify
- Spotify
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Stock Music Musician
- The Motley Fool
- The Verge
- Yardbarker
Szabolcs Szecsei
With over a decade of experience in writing and two decades in making music, Szabolcs is all ears when it comes to creating written and audio content. As an active touring/recording musician and creative writer, he focuses on exploring new places, experiences, and topics. He also rediscovered his long lost love for gaming, which only fueled his appetite to research new tech trends. Lastly, his enthusiasm toward powerlifting also means that he's trying to be well-versed in other topics too, such as lifestyle, fitness, resistance training, bodybuilding, and strength sports.
