OPINION: Spotify’s decade-long quest to make the world value music

What Spotify could do to actually convince me

As Spotify celebrates its decade-long mission to “get the world to value music,” I’ve taken a closer look at what it could do to make good on that promise.

1. Focus on music, not everything but the music

Lately, the Spotify app has felt more like a haven for podcasts and audiobooks than a dedicated music platform. With the introduction of exclusive podcast content from popular figures like Joe Rogan, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle, the home page is cluttered. This expansion coincided with price increases for Premium subscribers. Meanwhile, the app’s music library has taken a backseat.

Why not have a dedicated app for music, allowing users to cut through the noise and focus on the tunes?

2. Release Spotify Hi-Fi already!

If Spotify genuinely wants to value music, wouldn’t it make sense to ensure listeners can experience it in its purest form? With a commitment to master recordings at CD quality or better, Spotify could deliver the sonic quality artists intend. It’s been almost four years since the announcement of Spotify HiFi, and subscribers are still waiting for the promised Superpremium subscription fee.

Apple Music, on the other hand, offers hi-res lossless audio at 24-bit sampling and 192 kHz, as well as immersive spatial audio tracks with Dolby Atmos. Spotify doesn’t.

3. Maybe stop giving music away for free?

Spotify’s blog post outlines its goal to reach 1 billion paying listeners, which is double the current number of paid subscribers across all platforms. But the company also offers an ad-supported tier, allowing users to access every track without paying a dime. Spotify Free reportedly pays less per stream than Spotify Premium.

Why not ask users to pay for the music they want to listen to?

4. Start paying fairer rates

Spotify claims to have paid artists $10 billion in 2024, with over 10,000 artists generating more than $100,000 per year from the platform. While this is impressive, it’s largely due to the volume of streams rather than the rate per stream. Spotify ranks lower than its major rivals in terms of pay-per-song, with a rate of $0.00348 per play.

Why not increase the payout per stream to reflect the platform’s success?

5. Put the humans back to work

Spotify used to be a music discovery powerhouse, introducing users to new artists and bands. However, this is no longer the case. The platform now serves the same familiar tracks repeatedly, with playlists becoming increasingly stale.

Perhaps it’s time for Spotify to employ human editors to curate playlists and bring a fresh perspective to the platform?

By addressing these issues, Spotify can truly live up to its mission to value music and provide a better experience for its users.