Spotify

Spotify is a global music-streaming service founded in 2006 in Sweden by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It allows users to stream music, podcasts, and other audio content via a freemium model, offering both free, ad-supported access and premium subscription services.

Users can request to obtain a copy of and delete their user data through the app and website.^[1] According to the user guidelines, users cannot share their accounts with others (section 13) or reverse-engineer the Spotify client (section 1).^[2] Users do not own music with Spotify and thus cannot access any of the music without the Spotify client.

According to the privacy policy, user data collected includes name, estimated age, address, gender, phone number, and date of birth, with optional data such as voice and usage data being used to "personalize your account".^[3] This data, including listening history, is retained by Spotify for "as long as necessary" until the user makes a deletion request (with the exception of search queries after 90 days). Spotify also states they share your data with third parties, including Google Maps to verify addresses when purchasing a premium subscription.^[3]

For free users, Spotify plays advertisements in-between songs, with those same free users getting 6 song skips per hour and being restricted to shuffle-only play until September 2025.^[4] For premium users, the subscriptions cost between USD $11.99 per month for an individual, USD $16.99/m for a duo plan, and USD $19.99/m for a family plan.^[5]

According to Statistica, Spotify is currently the most used music streaming service with a 31.7% user share, with others such as Tencent Music and Apple Music falling behind.^[6]

In 2015, Spotify changed their Terms and Conditions (T&C) and privacy policy to allow access to users' contacts, photos, and location via mobile apps, triggering backlash over disproportionate data harvesting.^[7] In a Spotify blog post, CEO Daniel Ek apologized, characterizing the changes as misunderstood and stated that "if you don't want to share this kind of information, you don't have to."^[8]

Main article: Spotify Car Thing

In 2019, Spotify announced the Car Thing, a device marketed as a voice-controlled interface for selecting music and podcasts while driving.^[9] The device was officially launched in the United States on 22 February 2022, costing $89.99 and requiring a Spotify Premium subscription plan along with a phone with a mobile data connection to be used.^[10] On 30 June 2022, the device went on sale for $50.^[11] The company discontinued production of the device on 27 July 2022, citing low demand. A spokesperson told TechCrunch that "based on several factors, including product demand and supply chain issues, we have decided to stop further production of Car Thing units. Existing devices will perform as intended."^[12] In August 2022, Spotify further reduced the price to $30 in order to sell off all existing stock.^[13]

On 20 October 2022, security researchers released a report on how they achieved root on the Car Thing, uncovering how the device could potentially be hacked. Spotify responded on 21 October 2022, saying that the product was unsupported, end-of-life, and therefore no bugs would be accepted pertaining to the product.^[14] The product had gone from its launch to "end-of-life" in the span of 8 months.

On 23 May 2024, Spotify announced via email to users that support for the Car Thing would end in December of that year, rendering the device inoperable after that point.^[15]

The Car Thing support page advised Car Thing owners to "contact your state or local waste disposal department to determine how to dispose of or recycle Car Thing in accordance with applicable laws and regulations".^[16] On 28 May 2024, a class action lawsuit was filed against Spotify due to a lack of refunds offered for the Car Thing product.

"All of the claims herein arise out of Spotify's decision to unilaterally and without recourse cut off its support of the Car Thing and announce its plan to terminate its functionality on December 9, 2024," the lawsuit reads. "Many owners of the Car Thing have complained in public forums and to Spotify about the discontinuance of the product and have requested that Spotify address and remedy the problem by providing a refund, equivalent replacement, or allow the Car Thing to be open sourced for use outside of Spotify's control. Spotify has stated that it will not refund, or replace, the Car Thing, instead recommending that Consumers 'reset your Car Thing to factory settings and safely dispose of your device following local electronic waste guidelines.'" ^[17]

On 31 May 2024, Spotify began offering refunds for the Car Thing. In December 2024, the Spotify website for Car Thing read, "Contact customer service by no later than January 14, 2025 to discuss your refund options."^[18] The Spotify support web page for Car Thing states that they are discontinuing the hardware product as part of ongoing efforts to streamline their product offerings.^[15]

The audio signals may be recorded in real-time, or may correspond to previously-recorded audio signals... For example, such metadata might include an emotional state...... in one example aspect, the content metadata indicates an emotional state of a speaker providing the voice.

In 2021, Spotify was granted US patent 10891948 B2 for "identification of Taste Attributes from an audio signal". This describes tech that:

1. Analyzes what users say
2. Analyzes background noise to determine where you are(bus stop, coffee shop, home, etc)
3. Scores incoming data to guess a user's mood or emotional state.

The patent describes listening to birds chirping, printers printing, cars on a street. This technology enables Spotify to create detailed profiles of their users' activities, how they feel, and social interactions without users understanding that their data is being collected in this way.

This is marketed as a music recommendation system. The patent demonstrates that Spotify's capabilities go far further than music taste evaluation, with the ability for personal surveillance.

According to a statement Spotify gave at news media they are not currently using this in their service, however they have not committed to never using this technology on their service.^[19]

In recent years, Spotify has experimented with inserting extra AI and long-form content into user playlists, in order to lower the average royalty cost paid out per user.

• Perfect Fit Content (PFC) Program:

An internal initiative to seed playlists with AI-generated or low-cost music (e.g., ambient and jazz) from Swedish and English producers. These tracks replaced human artists to reduce royalty payouts.^[20]

• Fake artist networks:

Investigators found twenty individuals operating under 500 aliases (e.g., Trumpet Bumblefig, Vattio Bud, et al) generating millions of streams. One obscure Swedish jazz artist outperformed Grammy winning albums.^[20]

Spotify managers claimed that listeners "wouldn't know the difference" between authentic and PFC tracks upon concerns brought up by other employees.^[20]

On 12 September 2025, Spotify filed a DMCA take-down notice against ReVanced's "Unlock Spotify Premium" patch.^[21] Spotify alleged that the patch enabled circumvention of its digital protection measures by enabling users to remove advertisements and UI restrictions on the free version of Spotify. This is part of a broader crackdown where Spotify has disabled users from utilizing third-party tools to access its content, such as Grayjay.^[22]

Louis Rossmann and ReVanced have proven that the patch only removes client-side restrictions and does not violate 17 U.S. Code § 1201 of the DMCA,^[23] but ReVanced complied with the request regardless and is still aiming to regain the right to host the patch.

On March 9, 2026, Spotify has implemented significant restrictions on the use of its API to "enhance platform security and manage developer access more effectively". Main changes:

• Development Mode use will require a Spotify Premium account.
• Developers will be limited to one Development Mode Client ID.
• Each Client ID will be limited to up to 5 authorized users.
• API access will be limited to a smaller set of supported endpoints.

• Apple Music
• Deezer
• Pandora
• SoundCloud