As you may or may not know, Amazon owns quite a few other companies in the tech, e-commerce, and entertainment industries. The conglomerate is constantly buying up other businesses in order to have a greater monopoly on the markets and add to its net worth.
And you might be wondering: Does Amazon own Spotify?
Does Amazon Own Spotify?
Amazon does not own the online music streaming site, Spotify. Spotify is owned by the corporation Spotify Technologies S.A. Amazon has its own music streaming site and app called Amazon Music, for which you can either pay a monthly subscription or get free with an Amazon Prime membership.
In this article, you will learn everything there is to know about Spotify and Amazon, including their similar offerings, how they are related, and who owns each company.
Is Spotify Linked to Amazon Music?
While Amazon Music and Spotify are two different music streaming services offered by two separate companies, the two are actually linked in a few ways.
Amazon Music actually has a new feature in which you can import your saved or created playlists from another service, like Spotify, to enjoy on the Amazon Music site or app.
In order to move a playlist from Spotify to Amazon Music, just follow these simple instructions from Amazon:
- Open your Spotify account on an Android or IOS device or a web browser.
- Click on “Get started,” then follow the service prompts.
- Choose Amazon Music as your destination.
- Follow the instructions to configure your existing playlist/s for export.
- Find imported playlists in your Amazon Music Library, under the “Playlists” tab.
There are even several websites online that will help you sync the playlists from one app to another if the directions prove too confusing.
Another way in which Amazon Music and Spotify are linked is through the ability to use both options on your Alexa, Echo, or Fire TV devices. Amazon’s private-label tech devices are not exclusively connected to Amazon Music, and you can opt to listen to Spotify as well from every device Amazon makes.
Who Owns Spotify?
Technically, Spotify is owned by the corporation Spotify Technologies S.A. However, several people and companies own shares of Spotify’s company.
Co-founders of the streaming site, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, still own the majority of the shares in the company, making them the controlling parties in all decisions and the ones making the most profit!
Sony has a mutually beneficial relationship with Spotify in that they own less than 5% of the business, and they use Spotify on their gaming consoles.
Tencent Music Entertainment, a company from China, owns 9.1% of Spotify, and companies such as Morgan Stanley and Baillie Gifford own several shares as well.
Which Is Bigger – Amazon Music or Spotify?
When comparing which is bigger, Amazon Music or Spotify, there are several factors to take into consideration.
Amazon Music has around 68 million subscribers; however, Spotify currently has 217 million monthly active users worldwide.
Spotify’s yearly revenue is currently in the billions, whereas Amazon Music is only in the millions.
So it’s safe to say that across the board, Spotify is much bigger than Amazon Music. But of course, Amazon itself is vastly bigger than the Spotify corporation.
How Is Spotify a Competitor to Amazon?
Spotify and Amazon are certainly competitors as they both provide essentially identical services in music streaming.
If you have Spotify on your smartphone, you know that the service works by allowing account holders to stream music by searching for a specific song, an artist, or a playlist. By opting for Spotify Premium, you have the ability to download your favorite music and listen when you’re offline. You also have the option to create your own playlists with every track you can think of.
Amazon Music works in a very similar way. With a membership to the service, you can listen to audio entertainment anytime, anywhere. Both companies sporadically play ads throughout the music unless you opt for the Premium, or with Amazon, the Unlimited subscription.
A Spotify Premium account can cost anywhere between $9.99 and $15.99 per month, depending on how many devices you would like to use the service on.
While Amazon Music is free for Prime members, Amazon Music Unlimited costs $8.99 per month or $9.99 for non-Prime members. With Amazon Unlimited, you unlock unlimited ad-free music that is downloadable and available offline.
Because the two services are so similar, most users opt for one or the other as their audio entertainment app, which means that the companies are directly competing for users.
Why Has Amazon Not Bought Spotify?
Although it is not entirely clear why Amazon has not yet Spotify, there has been talk from Amazon’s management that if the company were to invest in the music industry, they would opt for a bigger fish.
A conglomerate of its own that controls the behind-the-scenes profits from music. Who it might be is still a mystery to all of us, but at the rate Amazon is growing, soon, no company will be out of reach for its deep pockets.
Conclusion
Amazon does not currently own Spotify, nor does it seem to have any plans to purchase it. Amazon’s music service, Amazon Music or Amazon Music Unlimited, offers almost identical services to Spotify. Spotify is owned by Spotify Technologies S.A., which is owned by the co-founders and several other businesses.