Why Spotify Lite is a move toward market dominance

Why is Spotify dropping a Lite version?

This isn’t the first time a big app company has rolled out a lightweight version of their product for lower-end users. Facebook, Instagram, and Uber all have Lite versions of their standard app available, with the intention of targeting developing countries outside traditional Western markets.

With less demanding specs, the availability of these services open them up to far more users, thus bringing in bigger profits and industry influence. If Spotify can be used by almost everyone on a global scale, for example, this could easily give it an advantage over its largest competitor, Apple Music.

It’s great for consumers, too, presenting less of a headache around data consumption and storage space – both of which can be scarce on cheaper contracts and phone models.

There are always concerns toward more market dominance, however. Spotify has repeatedly faced criticisms for poor artist royalty payments and for biased promotion of certain artists (anyone remember when Drake appeared on literally every single playlist cover?).

While I’m not suggesting that pushing out Spotify Lite will strangle the music business into a monopolistic stronghold, it’s worth keeping in mind how large Spotify actually is, and how much involvement it has in our music tastes. The company recently announced that it was profitable for the first time ever and boasted over 100 million paid subscribers for its service. That’s a lot of data, and a huge chunk of influence over what music we’re recommended.

How does Spotify have a hand in our music tastes?

Spotify’s recommendation system usually provides you with a ton of songs and artists to try once you’ve listened to a particular album or single. The issue with this is that most of us are prompted to try out the same handful of artists.

For example, if I were to listen to Tyler, The Creator once, I’m likely to see ASAP Rocky, Frank Ocean, Rex Orange County, Odd Future, Jaden Smith, The Internet, and Steve Lacey all pop up on my sidebar. While this obviously makes sense for the genre, Spotify’s decision to do this for any and all users who give Tyler a try means that, effectively, the company is dictating which artists are associated with one another.

Think of it like a huge franchise of record shops. Back in the late twentieth century, many avid music fans would find new material organically by scouring the shelves of their local store. A record shop in one area of the country may be laid out differently to another, staff members may highlight different artists in different places, etc, etc. The point is that variety and taste was unique to the individual. Spotify has effectively created a worldwide chain, where everyone is shown the same things in the same categories.

You can obviously explore on the app and find whatever you like, but the avenues you’re encouraged to venture down are similar for everyone. In this sense, Spotify is a ubiquitous curator, and has a hand in what we discover, regardless of how aware we may be of it.

Scrambling to get to the new music playlists is a momentous effort for young artists, who are at the mercy of Spotify’s algorithm and selection process. Streaming means marketability is now more important than ever.