For the duratiion of 7 weeks I dove into the Spotify brand and researched every aspect of the company to create multiple in-depth analysis: background research, a PESTLE on Sweden as a country, SWOTs for the brand and its competiton, product information and finances. All of this information went into a long presentation deck with the ultimate purpose of formulating strategic recommendations for Spotify Technology, S.A. based on the findings. This was a very informative and fun project to make, because I love Spotify. I’m a loyal user of the app, and its become something that I use on a daily basis. All of the information used on this project is based on research from August to November 2022.

Spotify Technology S.A. has successfully become one of the most popular audio streaming platform in multiple countries. The following analysis intends to summarize their most vital information and inner workings, using basic information about the company and analyzing different areas that have or could affect it somehow. The aim for this analysis is to provide Spotify with strategy recommendations that could result in positive results and the growth of the company overall.

As of 2022, Spotify’s main focus in investing on the future of the company. For this reason, all three of the following strategy recommendations are based on a plan of action that ultimately achieves exactly that. The proposals are the following:

• A partnership with Major League Baseball by using Spotify Codes for walk-up songs.
• Super fan experiences for users that listen to an artist for much longer than the average amount of seconds.
• The creation of acquisition of an event ticketing company.

In the case that only one strategy recommendation could be carried out, the one that could provide results faster and efficiently would be the one related to the MLB. Baseball is one of the most watched sports in the United States, and it allows for songs to be directly tied to each one of the players. Certain stadiums have reached an attendance of over 3B fans in one year alone. This presents a great opportunity for Spotify, to not only help fans to be able to save the songs of their favorite fans, but to increase streaming and listening times in the platform. The constant use of this feature (especially for those who are Season Ticket Holders), could very well lead them to becoming premium users.

1. MLB Walk-Up Songs

Baseball is one of the most watched sports in the United States. It is also the only sport that incorporates the most music specifically related to each player. Baseball leagues have “walk-up songs”, which players have the ability to choose for themselves. They are played every time that they walk up to the plate. These songs are chosen based on personal taste, meaning of lyrics, or superstition. Since the songs are only played for a few seconds before each at-bat, people don’t have a chance to try and scan it with services like Shazam or Snapchat. This presents an opportunity of partnership between Spotify and the MLB.
Spotify has special barcodes, that can be scaned within the app and will take the user to a song. These barcodes can be implemented in multiple screens around baseball stadiums, so that fans can have a chance of saving the songs of their favorite players. This would also be a chance an increased listening activity from users, because in the case that one of these songs becomes iconic, the fans will be wanting to listen to it more often. Take, for example, the song “Narco” by Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet, which became viral after the New York Mets closer, Edwin Diaz, started using it.

Image: @MLB on Twitter.

This would also be a chance an increased listening activity from users, because in the case that one of these songs becomes iconic, the fans will be wanting to listen to it more often. As previously mentioned, the song “Narco” by Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet because of New York Mets’ pitcher Edwin Diaz. This graph has been recording the growth of the song and its streaming activity in Spotify since its release in 2017. Diaz started using the song back in 2018, but didn’t live up to his potential until the 2022 series, where he became one of the best closers in the game. This information correlates to the statistics posted by Songstat, which have reported a total Playlist Reach of 12.9 million. The song’s popularity has increased 69% from what it usually was before this past baseball season. Spotify can only benefit from using this approach. It not only increases streamings, but makes users more likely to become premium users, if they’re not already.

Image: Songstats.

Spotify is the most popular audio streaming platform at the moment. Thousands of artists use it as one of the main places to share their music, and millions of users listen to that music on a daily basis. Some listeners would be considered super fans, given the amount of time that they spend listening to a specific artist.

The SuperFan Experience would work as a partnership with one artist or band per year. At the end of that year (with the data that Spotify uses to create Wrapped), 10 super fans who have listened to this artist/band for a certain amount of seconds would be sent tickets from Spotify to a private event with their idol. This experience would potentially increase streaming exponentially, not only for the artist, but for Spotify as well.

Taylor Swift is known to do events of this sort whenever she releases a new album. She calls them Secret Sessions, and invites her biggest fans (found on Twitter) to her home for a pre-release listening party. Events like this benefit both the artist and the company, but they are also a reward to the fans who spend a lot of their time on the platform supporting their idols.

Image: The Daily Edge (Taylor Swift with fans at one of her Secret Sessions).

3. Event Ticketing

There are currently 3 major event ticketing companies in the United States: Ticketmaster, Seat Geek and StubHub. Although Spotify allows for users to see upcoming events in an artist’s profile page, these are simply links that redirect the user to one of the previously mentioned companies. There is an opportunity for Spotify to either acquire or create a ticketing company, which would mean that users could enjoy their favorite musicians both on the app and live. If Spotify were to cerate their own company, it would be easier to eventually expand to every country that the app is currently available in. This extension to event ticketing could provide a great increase in profit for the company, especially if Spotify managed to get into partnerships with selling-out artists such as Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and Bad Bunny. There is a high demand for these musician’s live events, which create a lot of income for the companies that have the rights to sell their tickets.

Ticketmaster’s reputation has been as bad as it can be for years, having thousands of complaints a year. However, people feel obligated to still use their platform whenever they are the only ones that provide tickets to certain events. This presents a unique chance for Spotify to utilize their reliability and trustworthiness, and use them to create a ticketing app that is easier to navigate and that ensures a great experience for the loyal customers.