--- title: Spotify Is One of TIME's 50 Genius Companies 2018 description: Find out why Spotify is on TIME’s 2018 list of the 50 most genius companies. canonical: https://time.com/collections/genius-companies-2018/5412657/spotify/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-02T21:58:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:27:23.691Z og:title: Spotify Is One of TIME's 50 Genius Companies 2018 og:description: Find out why Spotify is on TIME’s 2018 list of the 50 most genius companies. og:url: https://time.com/collections/genius-companies-2018/5412657/spotify/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c72a1d69b91073/69893b590a4a22db7a9d3d24/spotify-50-genius-companies-2018.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Spotify Is One of TIME's 50 Genius Companies 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Spotify Is One of TIME's 50 Genius Companies 2018 twitter:description: Find out why Spotify is on TIME’s 2018 list of the 50 most genius companies. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c72a1d69b91073/69893b590a4a22db7a9d3d24/spotify-50-genius-companies-2018.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 02, 2018 # Spotify Soundtrack for the world by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  PARIS, FRANCE - 2018/06/12: The Spotify application seen display via the Google Play Store on a Android Sony smartphone front of hundreds of old 33rpm vinyls. (Photo by Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) PARIS, FRANCE - 2018/06/12: The Spotify application seen display via the Google Play Store on a Android Sony smartphone front of hundreds of old 33rpm vinyls. (Photo by Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)Guillaume Payen—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images More than a decade after Apple’s iPod first put thousands of songs in your pocket, music-streaming service [Spotify](https://www.spotify.com/us/) stuffs over 35 million of them there. And despite increasingly fierce competition from behemoths like Apple and Amazon, each of which now offers a rival service, Spotify is thriving. That’s in part thanks to its eerily accurate personalized playlists, its availability across a wide variety of devices, and smart subscription offerings, like a plan that bundles its music with access to TV streaming service Hulu. Spotify’s stock is up 20% since going public on the New York Stock Exchange in April, while more than 83 million subscribers now pay around $10 per month for its Premium service, which offers unlimited, ad-free music streaming, offline listening and other benefits. Spotify has been criticized by some for failing to adequately compensate artists and going overboard when it comes to promoting major musicians, but supporters say the company is making music more accessible, helping new artists find an audience and bringing much-needed changes to the entertainment industry. It’s now doubling down with original podcasts like Dissect, a deep dive into individual albums, while further disrupting the music industry through exclusivity deals cut directly with artists—from major acts like Drake to up-and-coming indie musicians. —_Patrick Austin_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/genius-companies-2018/5412657/spotify/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/genius-companies-2018/5412657/spotify/"},"headline":"Spotify","datePublished":"2018-10-02T21:58:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:27:23.691Z","description":"Soundtrack for the world","url":"https://time.com/collections/genius-companies-2018/5412657/spotify/","keywords":["Genius Companies 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c72a1d69b91073/69893b590a4a22db7a9d3d24/spotify-50-genius-companies-2018.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c72a1d69b91073/69893b590a4a22db7a9d3d24/spotify-50-genius-companies-2018.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/genius-companies-2018/5412657/spotify/","name":"Spotify"}}]}] ```