Spotify Newsletter #295

Your Weekly Dose of Spotify News

Mar 12, 2026

★ SPOTlight

⭐️ As Spotify Turns 20, the Most Global and Diverse Music Industry in History Has Taken Shape

Let’s turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away from the one we know today. Piracy was rampant, revenue was shrinking, and, for most artists, the path to a global career was incredibly narrow. The question on everyone’s mind wasn’t about growth, but whether the industry could survive. It was at that moment that Spotify was founded, to help rebuild a broken system.

⭐️ ‘The best Spotify feature yet’ — the SongDNA function is appearing for a small handful of beta users, and it’s already a slam dunk

Spotify has put its upcoming SongDNA feature on the backbench for a few months, but now that more users are finding it in beta, it's never felt closer — and it’s shaping up to be a serious rival to Tidal’s similar tool.

⭐️ Spotify’s music middle class is growing fast

Spotify’s 2025 Loud & Clear report is out, and while the headlines highlight superstars like Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift raking in tens of millions, the real story is happening further down the ladder. With over 11 million artists on the platform, most have under 1,000 monthly listeners – yet more musicians than ever are earning a sustainable income.

⭐️ Bad Bunny Brings the Sounds of Puerto Rico to Tokyo for Spotify’s Billions Club Live

Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify’s Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopping 29 tracks that have crossed the billion-stream mark. Over the weekend, he brought Billions Club Live to Tokyo to celebrate those achievements with his first-ever performance in Asia.

⭐️ Spotify Says 1,500 Artists Earned Over $1 Million in Royalties in 2025

Spotify paid out a record $11 billion to the music industry in 2025, bringing the streaming giant’s 20-year total to nearly $70 billion. But in its latest Loud & Clear report, the company is focusing on the artists who generated that total.