Criticism of Spotify

Spotify has also attracted media attention for several security breaches, as well as for controversial moves including a significant change to its privacy policy, "pay-for-play" practices based on receiving money from labels for putting specific songs on popular playlists, and allegedly creating "fake artists" for prominent playlist placement, which Spotify denies.

"[10] In May 2012, British Theatre vocalist and Biffy Clyro touring guitarist Mike Vennart stated: "I'd sooner people stole my work than stream it from [Spotify].

[14][15][16] In July 2015, Neil Young removed almost all of his music from Spotify and other streaming services, citing low sound quality as the primary reason.

[19] On 29 June 2021, Digital Music News released an article titled "Spotify Executive Calls Artist 'Entitled' for Requesting Payment of One Penny Per Stream".

The article covers the story of a Spotify Inventor Jim Anderson, who on 14 June 2019 responded in front of a live audience to the general allegation of unfair compensation when confronted about it by Ashley Jana, a producer/singer/songwriter who happened to be recording the event.

[26] Mike Masnick of Techdirt wrote: "Sure, in the past, it may have been reasonable for the labels to take on large fees for distribution, but that's when it meant manufacturing tons of plastic and vinyl, and then shipping it to thousands of record stores around the globe.

"[27] In February 2012, Forbes reported on "Spotify's secret weapon": musician D. A. Wallach, member of the band Chester French and former Harvard classmate of Mark Zuckerberg.

He said that "Thom's issue was that the pipe has become so jammed ... We encourage all of our artists to take a long-term approach ... Plan for the long term, understand that it's a tough game.

"[34] On 17 June 2016, Radiohead's ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was made available on Spotify, six weeks after it was released on paid-for streaming services including Apple Music and Tidal and Deezer.

[39] Swift stated: "I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music.

[43] According to Ben Popper of The Verge, Borchetta's figure of $500,000 only covered Spotify's payment for Taylor Swift streams in the US, which is not its largest market.

Regarding the $6 million figure, Popper wrote: "As more people sign up for Spotify and Taylor Swift continues her march towards infinite popularity, the amount she is getting paid is increasing.

Borchetta argued that Swift's musical oeuvre is "arguably the most important current catalog there is", and stated that the streaming issue is "about each individual artist, and the real mission here is to bring ... attention to it.

"[46] In December 2015, a bootleg release of Swift's song, "I Knew You Were Trouble", appeared on Spotify credited to Welsh rock band Lostprophets.

[48][49] Swift collaborated with Zayn Malik for the song "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" for the movie Fifty Shades Darker.

"[73][74] In February 2017, Prince's music produced under the Warner Bros. label, including the albums 1999, Purple Rain, Dirty Mind, and Sign o' the Times, became available on Spotify and other streaming services.

[91] On January 3, 2023, after years of negotiations with Tommy Boy Records,[92] American hip-hop group De La Soul announced that their first six albums would make their digital debut on March 3, 2023.

The Verge has criticised Wired's coverage (which was republished by Gizmodo) to the policy change, citing a lack of context in their reporting in terms of failing to mention opt-out and explicit consent clauses, describing it as an "overreaction", as "FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)", and fearmongering.

[112] A spokesperson for Spotify stated, "when we look at promotion, we look at issues around hateful conduct, where you have an artist or another creator who has done something off-platform that is so particularly out of line with our values, egregious, in a way that it becomes something that we don't want to associate ourselves with."

[115][116] Spotify eventually relented, and the decision to remove XXXTentacion's music specifically was revoked in June because the company deemed the original wording to be too "vague".

Spotify moved to reduce the impact of artists' conduct on their inclusion and promotion on the platform, saying that it isn't the company's purpose to regulate behaviour.

[118] Since about 2021 Spotify was filling its playlists in some genres (including jazz, chill and "peaceful piano") with stock music attributed to a handful of little-known musicians, mostly Swedish, in an effort to reduce its royalty payouts.

In 2022, an investigation by the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter found that around twenty songwriters were behind the work of more than five hundred "artists," and that thousands of their tracks were on Spotify and had been streamed millions of times.

[119][120] In March 2009, Spotify warned users that a security flaw discovered and fixed in December 2008 was more serious than previously thought, having compromised the password hashes of individual users in Spotify's pre-December 2008 customer base, as well as potentially "registration information such as your email address, birth date, gender, postal code and billing receipt details".

[145][146][147] Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who signed a multi-year partnership with Spotify, said that since April 2021 they had been "expressing concerns" over COVID-19 misinformation on the platform.

Although Ek addressed the Rogan controversy during the earnings call, the loss in value was attributed to the company's guidance on Q1 user growth, which did not meet analyst expectations.

[158] In a message to employees, Ek said: "While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more.

[160] In March 2024, after a two-year absence from the platform, Neil Young announced that his music would return to Spotify, starting with his greatest hits album.

[162] In December 2024, Spotify released its yearly 'Wrapped' feature, which is renowned for showing users their most listened to songs, genres, albums and artists.

[163] Helsing, writes Connie Lin,"engineers software that pieces together a real-time picture of an 'operational environment' by organizing unstructured data from multiple sensors on vehicles and systems—such as tanks, drones, or satellites—including video feeds, thermal imaging, and sonar and radar frequencies" which "could be valuable for military reconnaissance by helping officers assess battlefield combat situations or identify critical targets.