Topic
34 facts from 9 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2008
The three major labels and some independent labels were offered the chance to buy Spotify shares at a very favorable price around 2008.
“the three big labels and some indie labels collectively together get offered the opportunity to buy Spotify shares at an extremely favorable price”
2008
Erik Bernhardsson joined Spotify around 2008-2009 and spent seven years there, mostly building its music recommendation system.
“I joined after school in 2008, 2009, maybe, uh, and spent 7 years at Spotify”
2014
Taylor Swift wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 2014 criticizing Spotify and the way the streaming industry paid artists.
“She writes an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying that she completely disagreed with Spotify and the music streaming industry”
2014
On November 3, 2014, a week after releasing 1989, Taylor Swift removed her entire catalog from Spotify.
“A week later on November 3rd, after having been out for a week, Taylor pulls her entire catalog off of Spotify”
2014
Daniel Ek says that when Taylor Swift pulled her music in October 2014, Spotify had been in the US for just under three years and radio still dominated.
“Spotify at that time was like shy of three years in the US. Streaming penetration was relatively low. Radio was like the predominant thing.”
2018
Daniel Ek says that around 2018 audiobooks began appearing on Spotify's top listening lists in Germany, an early sign of demand before Spotify launched audiobooks.
“around 2018, we started seeing books showing up on the top list in Germany”
2018
Spotify did not enter podcasts until 2018, and the speaker believes it now holds over half of the market.
“Spotify didn't enter podcasts until 2018. And now is I think over half of the market.”
2022
A host says 98% of Acquired's current Spotify listeners were not listeners the year before.
“98% of the people who listen on Spotify today were not listeners”
2022
Daniel Ek says Spotify became the podcast market leader in most markets by 2022, after entering podcasting in 2019.
“in 2022, we were pretty much the market leader in most markets around the world.”
2023
The Acquired hosts spent three days in Stockholm in May 2023 to interview Daniel Ek at Spotify.
“I mean, we had three beautiful days in May in Stockholm.”
2023
According to Spotify Wrapped for podcasters, 76% of Acquired's Spotify listeners discovered the show in 2023.
“is that 76% of the people who listen to Spotify acquired on Spotify found us this year.”
Undated
The host estimates that a million Spotify-style streams generates about $4,000 in revenue for the artist and label combined, based on roughly 0.4 cents per stream.
“a reasonable ballpark to say that a million streams can net about $4,000 for the artist and their label in revenue”
Undated
Sony gave artists $250 million from its Spotify share sale as non-recoupable money, according to the host.
“So Sony was kinder. They said that the money that they gave to artists was non-recoupable, totaling $250 million of a total windfall for all of the artists.”
Undated
Warner Music Group gave artists 25% of its Spotify share-sale gains, but as a credit that could be recouped against album earnings.
“Warner does this. They only give 25% of the appreciation, but they do it as a credit that will be recouped against earnings from albums.”
Undated
Spotify has paid $40 billion to artists over its lifetime and is the single largest revenue source for the music industry, according to the hosts.
“Spotify has paid $40 billion to artists over their lifetime. They're now the single largest source of revenue for the entire music industry.”
Undated
Spotify has over 500 million monthly active listeners, over 200 million of whom are paid subscribers, according to the hosts.
“Spotify also has over 500 million monthly active listeners, over 200 million of which are paid subscribers.”
Undated
Over 60% of the Acquired podcast's audience listens on Spotify, up from almost none about four years earlier, according to the hosts.
“over 60% of Acquired's audience is now on Spotify, which is up from basically zero four years ago.”
Undated
Daniel Ek says music labels in Germany began uploading audiobooks to Spotify because they owned audiobook rights, which showed that people would consume non-music content there.
“in Germany, unbeknownst to us, but one of the sort of crazy things that ended up happening was just people started uploading audiobooks because it turns out that these music labels actually own a bunch of audiobook rights.”
Undated
Daniel Ek says Spotify believes audiobooks can grow from tens of millions of listeners today to hundreds of millions.
“Hundreds of millions of people who are actually listening to audiobooks because the content is great rather than today what's tens of millions of people.”
Undated
Daniel Ek says that in Spotify's early days a person needed to have heard about the service from about eight sources before signing up.
“in early Spotify, we had eight people needed to have heard about Spotify before we were able to sign someone up.”
Undated
Daniel Ek says Spotify's early US marketing concentrated on college cities, where music is a big part of consumers' lives.
“So much of our early marketing efforts were in college cities in the US.”
Undated
Daniel Ek says Spotify would not have survived if it had not been unable to launch first in the United States, which forced it to start in smaller European markets.
“I can tell you definitively, Spotify would not have been alive today had it not been that we couldn't launch in the US as our first market.”
Undated
A speaker states that the number of podcasts is a bit more than double two million, meaning roughly four to five million.
“Two million plus, I'm sure, at this point. It's about a little bit more than double that now.”
Undated
Daniel Ek describes Spotify's exponential growth as many different linear growth curves stacked on top of each other.
“if you think about an exponential curve, if you really zoom in on that exponential curve, it actually is like a lot of different linear curves stacked on top of each other that creates that kind of exponential curve.”
Undated
A host recalls that at Spotify's StreamOn event, Daniel Ek publicly said Spotify's audiobooks offering was not yet great.
“You said this about audiobooks at StreamOn. You got on stage to the public and said, we have audiobooks. I don't think it's great right now.”
Undated
Daniel Ek says Spotify's AI DJ is probably one of the most popular AI products by reach and that Spotify doesn't heavily promote it.
“Probably one of the most popular AI products out there now in terms of reach. We don't really tout it all that much.”
Undated
A host describes Spotify's original technical breakthrough as making streamed music feel instantly available using a hybrid of peer-to-peer and client-server technology.
“Because when you started, you were the company that figured out how to make it so music felt like it was on your hard drive and play fast when it wasn't through a hybrid of peer to peer and client server solutions.”
Undated
A host estimated that Spotify has spent between half a billion and three quarters of a billion dollars on podcast content.
“given the half billion dollars or three quarters of a billion dollars that they spent on content.”
Undated
After the Wall Street Journal profile, Acquired became the number one podcast on both the Spotify and Apple charts.
“Acquired became the number one podcast on both Spotify and Apple charts in the world.”
Undated
Daniel Ek says Spotify's feature showing what friends are listening to, built with Facebook, has existed for about 13 years.
“It's one of our more popular legacy features that's been around now for like 13 years.”
Undated
Spotify now has the capability to deliver full video to podcast listeners.
“head on over to Spotify. They now have the capability to release full video to our podcast listeners.”
Undated
Acquired published the special on Spotify so it can be watched on any device.
“So we've put it there for you all to watch on any device that you like.”
Undated
The video special sits in the regular Acquired podcast feed next to every other episode.
“It lives right in the feed alongside every episode of Acquired.”
Undated
While at Spotify, Bernhardsson released an open source workflow orchestration framework called Luigi.
“when I worked at Spotify, I released an open source framework called Luigi, which is like workflow orchestration.”
Episodes