In this post, we will analyze the mission statement of Spotify and how successfully it captures the essence of its business.
Spotify is a leading global music streaming network and the world’s largest online music streaming platform based on the number of monthly active users. Despite the presence of leading players like Apple, Amazon and Google in this sector, the company has maintained its leadership position. In the recent years, its user base and popularity have grown at a striking rate. As of the beginning of 2022, the number of monthly active users of Spotify was above 400 million which included more than 180 million premium subscribers. Apart from a few leading tech brands like Apple, Amazon and Google, there are not many players in the music streaming sector that have a global presence.
Spotify offers its services across 184 countries and territories. The company has continued to expand into new markets to grow its user base. Its influence as the leading music streaming brand has also grown with time. In a span of just 6 years, the company has expanded its user base from above 100 million to more than 400 million. Apart from its focus on technological innovation, superior user experience and a focus on user preferences have also helped the company drive higher growth.
The company enjoys a strong brand image and has done well in terms of marketing and promotions. Spotify mainly utilizes digital channels for the promotion of its services worldwide.
Here is its mission statement:
Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators.
A mission statement mainly defines the purpose that a company exists for. It gives us a glimpse of what the company strives to do and achieve. The focus of Spotify’s mission statement is human creativity. However, it is not a succinct and well-defined mission statement since it is not an art website that mainly promotes artists. It is true that artists are paid the royalty for streaming their music. However, in that case, it would be more apt to say that Spotify connects artists with millions of fans around the world.
There are a few things that constitute the essential ingredients of a perfect mission statement. First of all, it must have a description of the product and customer base of the brand. While Spotify’s mission statement includes a brief definition of the product, it alludes to the product/service as merely art. It is a music streaming and podcasting platform which must be explained clearly in the mission statement. Since it user base mainly includes listeners and not art fans, it would be apt to give a more precise definition of its user base in the mission statement. Its mission statement does not include any reference to its market or market size.
However, based on its mission statement, what Spotify is doing is to help the artists reach their fans worldwide and earn their living. Spotify also makes money from streaming but does not highlight that part of its business in its mission statement.
Moreover, it is unclear what it means by unlock the potential of human creativity. It only helps singers and podcasters reach millions of users and not the tools to unlock their potential. Overall, the music streaming network can improve its mission statement to make it more succinct and focused instead of a broadly defined one.
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