Spotify Newsletter #249

Your Weekly Dose of Spotify News

Mar 27, 2025

I like to think of myself as a knowledgeable music lover. I enjoy a wide variety of music genres. But you can’t know everything, locate everything, which is where discovery is so vital - be it from a friend, a magazine article, algorithms, something playing in the background at the coffee shop, and so on.

It’s a joy to discover.

This leads me back to the personalization data swirling around Spotify, which recently led me to Elkie Brooks. I had never heard of this bluesy, soulful singer from the UK in my life. If memory serves, I was in Patti Labelle world, and then all of a sudden I looked at the name, felt an impulse, sampled the discography … and now I love her.

I’ll also add The Tender Things to the conversation, the country rock band from Austin I just stumbled upon while listening to Beachwood Sparks. Boom — I am loving The Tender Things.

And like what usually happens when we discover an artist that had prior been off our radar — we immerse ourselves completely. Just a mad dash through the catalog, enjoying all of the music, which might be a week old, or from 40 years ago, but sounding as fresh as a daisy to our ears.

Perhaps I would have stumbled across Elkie Brooks or The Tender Things without a music streaming service. Even with access to Spotify, it was still mostly luck that led me to both artists as I criss-crossed the platform.

Still — I am grateful for the opportunity! Nothing drives my love of music streaming quite like the joy of discovering music. I am grateful for Spotify as my audio streamer of choice — and just thankful in general that ‘music streaming technology’ exists to provide the ability to explore and enjoy such a wonderful variety of music - old and new.

★ SPOTlight

⭐️ Music subscriber market shares 2024: Slowdown? What slowdown? Spotify continues to set the pace

Spotify’s market share (32%) is around where it was in 2015 and has remained relatively stable in all the intervening quarters. That might sound like stasis, but it is anything but. Between 2015 and 2024, the global base of music subscribers grew by more than 8

⭐️ The Spotify Partner Program Expands To Nine New Markets, Giving More Creators New Ways To Monetize Their Content

Since announcing the Spotify Partner Program last fall, we’ve heard from creators who are optimistic about the flexibility, control, and opportunity that our new monetization program provides. And following the successful January launch in the US, U.K., Canada and Australia, we’re expanding the Spotify Partner Program to nine new markets.

⭐️ Ovy on the Drums on Colombian Stars, W Sound and Being the No. 1 Latin Producer on Spotify

The hitmaker behind "TQG," "Provenza" and dozens of other hits spoke about his achievements and how he is preparing for future conquests.

⭐️ Spotify Is Blocking Porn That Rises to Top of Podcasts

Spotify says it has cut down on the number of explicit porn accounts on its video platform after they kept rising to the top of feeds. In a statement, a Spotify spokesperson told Gizmodo, “As part of our platform rules, we do not allow sexually explicit material on our platform,” adding that the offending material has been removed.