Which Company Owns Spotify?

Spotify (SPOT 1.48%) is the preeminent player in the global music streaming space. Founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, the platform was designed to allow music lovers access to a quality selection of listening options while solving the issue of piracy plaguing the industry at the time.

As an early mover in the streaming space, Spotify has been able to amass and maintain significant market share through the years. Its freemium revenue model -- which consists of a free, ad-supported tier and a paid, ad-free tier -- and extensive library of audio options that range far beyond music continue to contribute to the growth of its massive user base.

The music stock controls an approximately 32% share of the music streaming space worldwide, an impressive feat for a company that originated as a startup less than two decades ago. As of the first quarter of the Stockholm-based company’s fiscal 2024, Spotify had 615 million monthly active users globally. That figure represented a 19% increase from the year-ago period. Its cohort of premium subscribers (users who pay to access the ad-free tier) totaled 239 million at the end of the period, a 14% year-over-year hike.

As a publicly traded company, anyone can buy shares of Spotify. Here is a closer look at who owns the company, its board of directors, and ways that you can invest in this streaming stock if you want to add shares to your portfolio.

Who is the owner?

Who is the owner of Spotify?

Many individuals own shares of Spotify, but the majority of company shares are held by institutional investors, like banks and funds.

Spotify has been a publicly traded company since April 3, 2018. Its public debut was very different than the average stock, as Spotify opted for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

This is a less common approach than the traditional method of an initial public offering, but companies that do not need to raise new capital and are more interested in allowing investors to buy and sell shares on the open market may opt for this approach.

Largest shareholders

Who are the largest shareholders?

Currently, institutional investors control roughly 62% of Spotify shares. Company insiders control 26% of Spotify shares, with the vast majority of that amount held by just two individuals: the company's founders. Here is a look at the individuals and institutions that represent Spotify's largest shareholders.

Individual investors

1. Daniel Ek: Spotify's chief executive officer, founder, and chairman of the board of directors controls the largest stake of any individual shareholder. Currently, Ek's stake represents approximately 16% of outstanding shares. As of the company's most recent Form 20-F (the annual report that foreign companies must file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), Ek controlled 30,056,376 shares. That's a stake worth approximately $9.4 billion. However, there's more to examine behind these numbers. Back in 2017, Spotify entered into an agreement with Chinese multinational tech conglomerate Tencent Holdings (TCEHY 3.01%), through which each company purchased 10% stakes in the other.
   
   Ek controls the voting power for Tencent through his investing holding company D.G.E. Investments, and those shares are reflected in his overall share count above. As of the end of 2023, D.G.E. Investments Limited held 13,424,407 ordinary shares of Spotify. Ek shed about 400,000 shares of his Spotify stake in April 2024, a modest slice of the pie, and in the aftermath of a considerable run-up for the stock. Prior to founding Spotify, Ek served in multiple senior positions at an auction company that was later bought by eBay (EBAY 1.66%) and founded an online advertising company called Advertigo.
   
2. Martin Lorentzon: Spotify's co-founder serves as a member of the board. According to the company's most recent 20-F, Lorenzton controls a stake worth approximately $7 billion, or 21,476,145 shares. He sold off 255,000 shares of the business in June 2024, or just around 1% of his total stake. Currently, Lorenzton owns around 11% of outstanding shares. While Lorentzon maintains a smaller stake than Daniel Ek, he has more voting power than any other Spotify shareholder. This is because Lorentzon exerts control over the majority of the company's beneficiary certificates.
   
   Together, Ek and Lorentzon control 73% of the voting power of all the company's outstanding voting securities. However, Lorentzon holds 42.7% of the voting power as of the company's most recent annual report while Ek controls 30.5%. Prior to founding Spotify, Lorentzon founded an internet marketing company called Tradedoubler. He also served on the board of directors for Sweden's top telecom company from 2013 to 2018.

Institutional investors

1. Baillie Gifford and Company: The Edinburgh-headquartered investment management company owns approximately 22 million Spotify shares, or 11.3% of outstanding shares. That stake is worth around $6.6 billion. Its Baillie Gifford International Growth Fund (BGEKX 0.44%) holds approximately 654,000 shares (0.34%) of Spotify, worth approximately $202 million. Spotify is one of the top five holdings in this fund. Baillie Gifford and Company has been in business since 1908 and is wholly partner-owned.
2. Morgan Stanley (MS 2.44%) was founded in 1935 by Harold Stanley and Henry Morgan, the grandson of J.P. Morgan. Stanley and Morgan previously worked at J.P. Morgan (NYSE:JPM), a company that is, incidentally, also a Spotify shareholder. The impetus for Stanley and Morgan to start Morgan Stanley and branch off from J.P. Morgan occurred after the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act, which required banks to separate commercial and investment banking. Today, Morgan Stanley owns approximately 7.5 million shares of Spotify, representing about 4% of outstanding shares. That stake is valued at around $2.3 billion.
3. Price (T.Rowe) Associates: This entity is a subsidiary of global investment firm T. Rowe Price Group (TROW 2.79%), which was founded in 1937 and is based out of Baltimore, Maryland. The entire enterprise controls approximately $1.6 trillion in assets under management. As Spotify’s third-largest institutional shareholder, the subsidiary T. Rowe Price Associates controls 5.8 million shares, representing 3% of outstanding shares. That stake is worth approximately $1.8 billion. The company's Price (T.Rowe) Mid Cap Growth Fund (RPMGX 1.16%) features Spotify as one of its top 10 holdings. The fund holds 2.2 million shares of Spotify (1.15%) worth approximately $676 million.
4. BlackRock (NYSE:BLK): One of the leading global investment managers, BlackRock serves individuals, governments, financial advisors, insurance companies, pension plans, and other clients on a global scale. The firm has assets under management of approximately $11 trillion. BlackRock owns about 5.5 million shares of Spotify, representing 2.9% of outstanding shares. That is a stake with a valuation of approximately $1.7 billion. BlackRock's iShares Russell Midcap Growth ETF (IWP 1.87%) holds 615,000 shares of Spotify (0.32%), worth about $190 million.
5. Wellington Management Group, LLP: A Boston-based firm with assets in management over $1 trillion, the company operates as a private investment management entity. The company was founded in 1928 and boasts over 900 investment professionals serving clients in over 60 countries. Wellington Management Group holds about 4.9 million shares of Spotify, or approximately 2.6% of shares outstanding, giving it a total stake worth $1.5 billion.

Board of directors

Who is on the board of directors for Spotify?

Spotify's board of directors consists of the following 10 members:

• Daniel Ek: Spotify's founder and current CEO continues to serve as executive chair of the company's board.
• Martin Lorentzon: The company's co-founder continues to serve as a member of the board and previously was chairman of the board of directors from 2008 to 2016.
• Christopher (Woody) Marshall: Marshall has been a member of the board since 2015. He serves on the board of directors of various public and private enterprises and is also a general partner at a private equity firm called Technology Crossover Ventures. He previously worked at the venture capital firm Trident Capital. Marshall owns 73,104 shares of Spotify.
• Barry McCarthy: McCarthy has served as a member of the board since 2020 and previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Spotify from 2015 to 2020. Before that, he served on the board of multiple companies, including Spotify, where he was a member of the board from 2014 to 2015. Other companies on whose boards McCarthy has served include Eventbrite (EB -1.48%), Chegg (CHGG -4.32%), and Instacart (CART -0.12%). McCarthy used to serve as the Chief Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer at Netflix (NFLX 0.78%) from 1999 to 2010. He owns 381,797 shares of Spotify as of last record.

• Shishir Mehrotra: He has been a member of the board since 2017 and is the co-founder and CEO of Coda, Inc. From 2015 to 2017, Mehrotra served as Strategic Advisor to the CEO of Spotify. Prior roles include Director of Program Management at Microsoft (MSFT -0.1%) and Vice President of Product and Engineering at Alphabet's Google (GOOGL 1.54%) (GOOG 1.72%). Mr. Mehrotra owns shares of Spotify, 49,776, according to the company's most recent 20-F.
• Heidi O'Neill: O'Neill has served as a member of Spotify's board of directors since 2017. She also serves on the board at Hyatt Hotels Corp. (H 3.03%). She previously served as a founding member of the Nike (NKE -0.21%) School Innovation Fund and is President of Consumer, Product, and Brand at Nike. According to recent filings, she holds 6,395 shares of Spotify.
• Ted Sarandos: Sarandos has served as a member of the board of directors since 2016 and is currently both co-CEO and member of the board of directors at Netflix. Other roles include chairman of the board of trustees for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and member of the board of trustees for the American Film Institute. He holds 13,548 shares of Spotify.
• Thomas Staggs: Staggs has been a member of Spotify's board since 2017. He previously served in various roles at Walt Disney (DIS 0.59%), including chief operating officer and chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide. He was instrumental in Disney's purchase of assets, including Marvel Entertainment and Pixar. Staggs currently serves as co-CEO and co-chairman of Candle Media LLC. He controls approximately 23,248 shares of Spotify.
• Mona Sutphen: Sutphen has been a member of the Spotify board since 2021. She served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2011. She also served on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Currently, Ms. Sutphen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member at Human Rights First, and a board member at the International Rescue Committee. She also serves as a partner at private equity firm The Vistra Group, having co-founded and continuing to work in an advisory role in various technology startups.
• Padmasree Warrior: She has served on Spotify's board since 2017. Ms. Warrior previously served on the boards of Microsoft, Box (BOX -0.09%), and Gap (NYSE:GPS). She previously served as Chief Development Officer and Chief Executive Officer at NIO (NIO 3.18%), as well as Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at Cisco (CSCO 1.54%). Ms. Warrior controls 6,760 shares of Spotify.

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How to invest

How to invest in Spotify

Because Spotify is a publicly traded company, if you have a brokerage account, you can buy shares of the entertainment stock yourself. If you don't currently have one, creating an account on your chosen brokerage platform takes minutes and makes investing in stocks fast and simple. Make sure you a select the brokerage that best fits your investment needs and goals.

You'll also want to figure out your budget before you invest in Spotify. Diversifying your investment capital across a wide range of stocks can help you better compound your returns with time. Even if you are a beginner and have a smaller amount to invest, investing consistently and dollar-cost averaging your capital into quality businesses you understand can grow your portfolio through the years.

Be sure to research any company you buy before you add it to your portfolio. You need to understand the company's financials, its business, and its profitability and ensure the investment is the right fit for your portfolio preferences and risk tolerance level.

When the time comes to buy shares through your brokerage account, you'll need to pull up your account and make sure it's funded. Then, enter the ticker SPOT in the search box and decide how many shares you want to buy. Many brokerage firms will also let you buy fractional shares of stocks. Once you've selected the number of shares you want, you can place your order.

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