Launched in 2008 with over 100 million songs at users’ fingertips, Spotify is the world’s biggest music streaming service. It has continued to grow in popularity every year and has become a go-to platform for teens.
“I would say it’s the most popular music streaming platform for kids our age,” said Tiree Hansen, a high school student and Petaluma resident.
Music is a big part of many teens’ lives, providing a quick and enjoyable form of entertainment and a way to bond with one another.
Spotify is not just a platform for music lovers, however. It also offers 6 million podcasts and, for its premium members, over 250,000 audiobooks.
“I have used Spotify for audiobooks and for music. I use Spotify every single day, during school, when I’m completing homework, and while walking from school to home. Spotify is a really good platform overall,” said sophomore Arina Bolsakova.
According to David Curry in an article by Business of Apps, Spotify is the preferred streaming platform for a third of the world’s music streaming listeners.
“I think Spotify is really popular because there is so much available on it such as music, podcasts, and even video recordings. It’s easy to use because you can download songs using premium and play them from anywhere anytime,” Bolsakova said.
One of the reasons so many people use Spotify is the availability of a free plan. This allows more price-sensitive users to access the same music for free but with ads. This provides Spotify with a steady stream of new free customers that can be potentially converted to premium later.
“Spotify’s free plan makes the platform a lot more accessible for everyone. Some people may not be able to afford premium or may not want to pay for it but having the ability to access a bunch of free music is really nice. A lot of the other streaming apps don’t do that,” said Lea Harris, a freshman at Carlmont.
Another feature that Spotify offers is the ability to share music with friends and family on the platform. This allows teens to share songs and playlists they like with others and helps them explore new music genres, artists, and songs.
“You can share your playlists with your friends, and you can look at theirs. I can also access playlists that other people have created and published which is useful when I’m looking for something quick. For example, if I want a Christmas playlist I can just search that up and it’s already there,” Harris said.
Spotify has also readily kept up with the newest technology advancements to make the platform as efficient as possible. Released in 2023, Spotify DJ is a virtual AI assistant that recommends songs and helps users discover new artists, genres, and playlists.
“The Spotify DJ feature is really cool. It plays songs that I’ve recently listened to and introduces me to new music. I’ll use that playlist to listen to new songs or find ones that are similar to the ones I already like,” said Adelyn Castelli, a sophomore at Carlmont.
At the end of every year, Spotify offers a feature called Spotify Wrapped which allows users to view data and listening history from the past year.
“Spotify takes everything that you’ve listened to for the whole year and is then able to tell you things like who you’re most listened to artists were and what your top songs were. It’s really cool to see what music I’ve been listening to for the whole year. I haven’t seen any other apps that offer that,” Castelli said.
