Spotify

Spotify streams more than 100 million tracks and about 8 million podcast titles, with audiobooks in some markets, on phones, desktops, the web, cars, watches and smart speakers. It is the only service in this category with a free, ad-supported tier.

Premium removes the ads and adds offline listening and lossless audio up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz. In Germany it costs EUR 12.99 a month, Duo EUR 17.99 and Family EUR 21.99; in France an individual plan is EUR 12.14. Spotify now checks Family plans: members can be asked to confirm their address, or to scan a QR code on the plan manager’s phone in the same place, within seven days. A member who fails moves to the free tier and cannot join another Family or Duo plan for 12 months.

Against Apple Music the gaps are in audio formats: there is no Dolby Atmos, and lossless stops at 44.1 kHz where Apple goes up to 192 kHz.

Spotify is the music, podcast and audiobook streaming service founded in Stockholm in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. Its parent, Spotify Technology S.A., is incorporated in Luxembourg and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, where it files its annual report as a foreign private issuer on Form 20-F.

Control stays with the founders. The 20-F for 2025 gives Ek 28.8% and Lorentzon 40.5% of the combined voting power, 69.3% together, held through ordinary shares and voting-only beneficiary certificates. Tencent’s music arm holds 8.1% of the ordinary shares and has given Ek an irrevocable proxy to vote them. Users in Europe contract with Spotify AB in Stockholm.