Maryna Mikeladze has been waiting for Spotify to enter Ukraine for over five years — ever since she tried the world’s largest music streaming service for the first time.
Until the Swedish company started to work in Ukraine on July 15, Mikeladze used Spotify in what she calls “the most legal of all the illegal ways” – she set up a foreign account, paid for a subscription and used a VPN to be able to listen to music through the platform.
She changed the subscription plan to a Ukrainian one on the very first day the service became available.
“I’m going to pay a bit more now but I wanted to do it legally so that it’s fair to the service that does a tremendous job and to the musicians,” Mikeladze told the Kyiv Post.
She was one of the many who have been anticipating Spotify’s appearance in Ukraine, which is why the rumors about the platform’s plans caused a media buzz that still hasn’t waned.
Spotify’s official launch in Ukraine, however, goes beyond just pleasing the long-time fans of the service — it also contributes to the growing subscription culture, as well as increases local musicians’ income and visibility.
Secret sauce
Spotify was founded in 2006 in Sweden, but started to offer its service two years later, setting a global trend for music streaming subscriptions.
Despite dull forecasts, including the notorious claim of Apple’s late Steve Jobs that consumers won’t pay for “renting music,” the on-demand music model proved to be a success and was later picked up by tech giants, including Apple itself.
Today, there are over 300 million people all over the globe who pay for subscriptions to various services, and about 36% of that share is Spotify’s, according to MIDiA Research, a media analysis firm.
Over the years, the Swedish company has grown to become the market’s number one player with over 130 million paid subscribers. The runner-up, Apple Music, currently has less than half as much.
Apart from that, Spotify has 156 million more consumers who use the free version of the service, which has a number of limitations and plays ads.
The secret behind the platform’s astonishing success is believed to be its personalized approach to each user. To offer a number of recommended playlists, six of which are updated on a daily basis and several more weekly, Spotify collects one terabyte of user data per day for its artificial intelligence to process.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The app’s home screen alone is governed by a separate algorithm to suggest playlists, top podcasts (of which Spotify has one of the biggest libraries), favorite artists and musicians to discover, trending releases, throwbacks and more. And all of that is based on each user’s preferences, not only by genre or artist but also by concrete aspects of songs they like, such as a certain guitar sound.
Mikeladze says that personalized recommendations are the main reason she preferred Spotify over all the other platforms she has tried before.
“You can discover little-known musicians from distant countries that are not in rotation on TV,” Mikeladze said. “That broadens your perspective in regard to genres and (music in other) countries.”
The service is now available in 92 countries, which includes all of Europe, North America, most of South America, Australia, parts of Asia and Africa.
On July 15, Ukraine was added to its coverage along with 12 other Eastern European and Asian countries.
“Our expansion in Europe comes as consumers in the region embrace streaming,” reads Spotify’s statement following the news. “This launch opens the door for nearly 250 million fans to start discovering new music from their countries and around the world.”
The Kyiv Post couldn’t reach Spotify for comment.
The long-awaited world’s biggest music streaming service Spotify has joined the Ukrainian market on July 15, 2020.
Subscription culture
Ukraine has had a long history of copyright infringement and internet piracy. Once some streaming services started to enter Ukraine, like Netflix in 2016, people got more accustomed to paying for content.
However, paying for content in a country where most of the population has been downloading pretty much anything for free from torrent trackers for years is still rather an alien concept.
Maksym Komlev, an editor at Slukh, a Ukrainian online music publication, believes that the bigger the choice of streaming platforms, the more likely it is that people will find one that suits their taste and meets their demands. So eventually they all will pay for content, he says.
Before Spotify launched here, Ukrainians could livestream music from Apple Music, Google Play Music, YouTube Music and Deezer.
However, those platforms better serve music fans who know exactly which artist, album or song they want to listen to at the moment, while the services’ playlists and recommendations are believed to be their weakest suit.
Komlev says that Spotify is a thought-through platform, stylish and convenient to use.
“It has been developed for people and you can feel it,” he told the Kyiv Post.
The Swedish company offers Ukrainians all of their regular subscription plans: Individual, Premium Duo, Family and Student.
The individual plan costs $4.99, or Hr 135, which, taking into account prices in Ukraine, equals about three cappuccinos and is affordable to many.
Offering that enticing package, Spotify might push more Ukrainians to explore the subscription culture, according to Komlev. “I hope it will have an influence,” he said.
Industry benefits
The appearance of the music streaming giant in Ukraine may also become a turning point for local musicians and the market overall.
Spotify lets artists register their profiles and release music through the platform directly. Some Ukrainian bands and singers already have such artist profiles, but many of them use the services of foreign intermediaries and pay them a share from their streaming income to be able to do that.
From now on, local musicians can take care of their profiles on their own and save money.
Oleksiy Sahomonov, the producer of one of Ukraine’s most popular bands, Boombox, says that the more platforms artists are represented on, the better it is for them.
“It’s important for a band to be everywhere, in a good way,” Sahomonov told the Kyiv Post.
For that reason, Boombox, has collaborated with a French company that puts their music onto 28 music services.
However, since Spotify wasn’t available in Ukraine, where Boombox’s core audience is, their income from streaming there was meager.
The band now has about 1.5 million streams per month across all platforms it is present on, but Sahomonov says that this doesn’t bring enough money to cover the expenses of a 20-member team that Boombox has.
Now, when Spotify is officially in Ukraine, the company is supposed to have a team of editors working to explore Ukrainian music, discover indie artists and compile playlists for the local audience. That will give the Ukrainian artist more visibility on the platform, which might increase their streams and, consequently, their income.
Komlev believes that Spotify’s representation in Ukraine can also give a signal to the major international labels that, unfortunately, don’t cooperate with local artists and have no offices here at the moment.
“There are (musicians) worth working with,” Komlev said. He believes that Spotify’s presence might push labels to invest in Ukrainian music.
“Hopefully, Spotify will be one of those steps that will get us closer to that,” Komlev said.
