As a part-time working musician I also wonder about this because they aren’t very artist-friendly, either. Their discovery-specific algos/UX are ok, but I thin

As a part-time working musician I also wonder about this because they aren’t very artist-friendly, either. Their discovery-specific algos/UX are ok, but I think becoming the global de-facto music/audio-specific social network is their biggest moat. It’s been so tough to replicate that apple/google/amazon have yet to make much of a dent despite spotify’s actively hostile UX and practices. Edited to add: Music generes and fandoms have always been tribes and spotify was the first to capitalize on that aspect of music culture. Other companies approached their products in a “building a “digital CD-vinyl collection” kinda way, but there are few network effects in that.