Over 1 billion playlists will be created on Spotify this year
Image credit: Cofohint Esin
Are playlists the new album? If so then there’s steep competition with almost 725 million playlists created this year alone.
The way that we consume music is changing as we use music streaming. The tracks we like are getting shorter and some argue that the album is being retired in favour of the playlist. Spotify’s creator speaks on how they’re putting emphasis on the playlist.
Spotify co-founder and Daniel Ek thinks highly of playlists. In a recent LinkedIn post, he says: “If you asked people what differentiates Spotify, one of the things they always cite is our playlists.” Whilst Spotify’s famous for their in-house playlists, user-created playlists are a huge part of their platform.
In-fact, Spotify currently houses roughly 8 billion playlists created by users themselves. 725 million of them have been created since the start of 2024, putting users on track to create around 1.5 billion playlists this year alone.
The huge creation of playlists is perhaps down in part to Spotify’s AI Playlist tool. The beta of this feature allows subscribers to create automatically generated playlists from text prompts which they can play, save, and share.
Daniel Ek reveals that South Korea is the biggest playlist lover, with 50% more playlists coming from the country than anywhere else. Spotify launched in South Korea in 2021 and has made a significant success in the region despite competition from huge local players like Melon, Bugs!, NAVER VIBE, FLO, and Genie.
Whilst playlists may not replace the album, it certainly represents the digital equivalent to radio. It allows tastemakers and curators to present a montage of music they’ve especially selected to expose it to potentially millions of willing listeners. For many, these playlists represent the primary source of music discovery.