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Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT) offers an audio-streaming subscription service. The company monetizes its service through monthly fees for its premium subscription service and through sales of advertising associated with its free streaming service. In the second quarter of 2025, Spotify offered Premium services to 276 million subscribers, a 12% year-over-year increase. The company also reported total revenue of almost €4.2 billion.
Key Takeaways
- Headquartered in Sweden and legally domiciled in Luxembourg, Spotify is a foreign company and is thus not required to disclose the same information as U.S. firms concerning the share ownership of corporate insiders.
- The top individual insider shareholders of Spotify are Daniel G. Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
- For institutional firms, BlackRock Inc., Baillie Gifford & Co., and Morgan Stanley are the institutions holding the most shares.
Top Individual Insider Shareholders
The following individual shareholders own the most shares of Spotify. Note that the shares noted do not reflect any options or futures contracts giving these individuals the right to future shares. The number of shares used for any proportion is pulled from Spotify’s Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2024. The number of total outstanding shares at that date was 203,844,409.
Daniel G. Ek
Daniel G. Ek owns 29.1 million shares of Spotify, representing 14.3% of total shares outstanding, according to the company’s annual report for the period ending Dec. 31, 2024.
Ek is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Spotify. He founded the company in 2006 with his business partner, Martin Lorentzon. Spotify has since grown into a leading music-streaming service. Ek oversaw the company’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2018. Before Spotify, he founded an online marketing firm called Advertigo, which he sold to Sweden-based Tradedoubler AB in 2006. According to Forbes, Ek has a net worth of $10 billion as of August 2025.
Martin Lorentzon
Martin Lorentzon owns 20 million shares of Spotify, representing 9.8% of total shares outstanding, according to the company’s annual report for the period ending Dec. 31, 2024.
Lorentzon is the other co-founder of Spotify. From 2008 to 2016, Lorentzon served as the company’s chairman of the board. In 1999, he founded Tradedoubler, the company to which Ek sold Advertigo in 2006. Lorentzon also served on the board of directors of Telia Company AB, Sweden’s primary telecom operator, from 2013 to 2018. As of August 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth at $14.9 billion.
Important
“Insider” refers to people in senior management positions and members of the board of directors, as well as people or entities that own more than 10% of the company’s stock. In this context, it has nothing to do with insider trading.
Top 3 Institutional Shareholders
Institutional investors hold the majority of Spotify’s shares, at 65.8% of total shares outstanding as of August 2025.
BlackRock Inc.
BlackRock Inc. (BLK) owns 11.3 million shares of Spotify, representing approximately 8.3% of total shares outstanding, according to Nasdaq records as of March 31, 2025. BlackRock manages mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and closed-end funds. It reported a record $12.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM) in Q2 2025.
Baillie Gifford & Co.
Baillie Gifford owns 9.6 million shares of Spotify, representing 7.1% of total shares outstanding, according to Nasdaq records as of June 30, 2025. As of June 30, 2025, the company reported AUM of 209 billion pounds (about $281 billion). The company manages a diverse set of mutual funds. The Baillie Gifford International Growth Fund (BGEKX) is one of its largest funds. The fund is $3.3 billion in size, and Spotify is among the fund’s top 10 holdings, comprising 6.18% of the fund’s total assets as of July 31, 2025.
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley (MS) owns 6.7 million shares of Spotify, representing approximately 5% of total shares outstanding, according to Nasdaq as of March 31, 2025. Morgan Stanley is a multinational investment bank and financial services company with about $1.6 trillion in AUM. The firm offers a diverse range of mutual funds, and complete holdings for its fund offerings are publicly available quarterly 15 calendar days after the quarter ends by calling or emailing customer service.
How Does Spotify Make Money?
Why Have Some Artists Removed Their Content from Spotify?
Some musicians and bands have asked Spotify to remove their content to protest the company’s policies, such as low artist royalty pay, the company’s commitment to right-wing podcasters like Joe Rogan, and CEO Daniel G. Ek investing in weaponry powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Is Spotify Free?
Spotify has a free version available to users, which is supported by ad revenue. The upgraded premium service has a paid monthly subscription, the cost of which varies by country. This paid version has upgraded features such as ad-free music.
The Bottom Line
The top shareholders of Spotify include co-founders Daniel G. Ek and Martin Lorentzon, with Ek owning 14.3% of total shares and Lorentzon owning 9.8%. Institutional investors like BlackRock Inc., Baillie Gifford & Co., and Morgan Stanley also hold significant shares, with institutional ownership totaling almost 66% of total shares outstanding.
