Who Owns Spotify: The Largest Shareholders Overview
Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT) is a leading audio streaming provider. It makes money by selling its paid subscription allowing unlimited music and podcast streaming for a monthly fee. Spotify also has a popular free ad-supported service that is much less profitable and works mainly as a source of new paid subscribers. Let’s now look at who owns Spotify and who controls it.
Spotify’s largest shareholders are asset manager Baillie Gifford, which owns 14.5% share, Martin Lorentzon (11.1%), Tencent (8.6%), Daniel Ek (7.5%), and T. Rowe Price (5.0%). Thanks to “super-voting” certificates, founders Lorentzon and Ek hold 74.1% of all votes and control the company.
 Spotify's Largest Shareholders (Dec 2022)Shareholder | Ownership | Voting Power | | ||||
 | Baillie Gifford | 14.5% | 5.1% | ||||
 | Martin Lorentzon | 11.1% | 42.5% | ||||
 | Tencent | 8.6% | 0.0% | ||||
 | Daniel Ek | 7.5% | 31.6% | ||||
 | T. Rowe Price | 5.0% | 1.8% | ||||
 | Other | 53.3% | 19.0% | ||||
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | |||||||
 Source: Multiple SEC filings | |||||||
In this article, I will dive more into who owns Spotify and who controls it. I will show you who Spotify’s largest shareholders are, how many shares and votes they have, and how much their stake is worth.
If you are interested, you can also explore who owns other companies like Roblox, Netflix, Twitter, Tencent, or Tesla.
📃 Who Owns Spotify?
Spotify is owned by its shareholders. The largest ones are asset manager Baillie Gifford, which owns 14.5% of the company, co-founder Martin Lorentzon with 11.1% ownership share, Tencent (8.6%), co-founder Daniel Ek (7.5%), and T. Rowe Price (5.0%)
The largest owner of Spotify is Scotland based investment management firm Baillie Gifford, which owns 14.5% of the company.
- Baillie Gifford significantly increased its stake in Spotify compared to December 2021
The second largest Spotify owner is co-founder and largest individual shareholder Martin Lorentzon, who owns an 11.1% share.
- Despite owning only 11.1% of Spotify, Martin Lorentzon controls 42.5% of all votes and, together with his co-founder Daniel Ek, controls Spotify.
- Martin Lorentzon owns most of its shares through chain of two companies. Martin owns Luxembourg-registered company Amaltea S.à r.l., which in turn owns Cyprus company “Rosello Company Limited”, which owns Spotify’s shares. Only a tiny portfolio of Martin’s stake is held directly.
The third largest Spotify owner is Tencent, a Chinese technology giant, which owns an 8.6% stake in the company.
- Tencent stake is a result of an agreed share swap in 2017 between Spotify and Tencent Music Entertainment (TME). Spotify has a stake in TME, and TME, through various Tencent subsidiaries, has a stake in Spotify.
- Tencent does not hold any voting power, and voting power over those shares is exercised by Daniel Ek.
Large Spotify owner is also its co-founder, CEO, and chairman, Daniel Ek, who owns a 7.5% share.
- Despite owning only 7.5% of Spotify, Daniel Ek controls 31.6% of all votes and, together with his co-founder Martin Lorentzon, controls Spotify.
- Daniel Ek does not hold his Spotify shares directly but through two Cyprus-based companies. Daniel owns D.G.E. Holding Limited, which owns D.G.E. Investments Limited, which owns Spotify’s shares.
Founders Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek together own 19% of Spotify and control 74% of all votes thanks to super-voting certificates they hold and because Daniel Ek exercises votes tied to shares owned by Tencent.
Spotify was founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon and has been a publicly listed company since its initial public offering on NYSE in 2018 (Ticker: SPOT)
- Right before its IPO, Martin Lorentzon owned 12% of Spotify and Daniel Ek 9% based on the company prospectus.
Spotify Technology S.A. has headquarters in Sweden, but its holding company that is traded on NYSE is domiciled in Luxemburg. The Luxemburg company then owns Sweden-based Spotify.
🎮 Who Controls Spotify (SPOT)?
Spotify is controlled by its founders, Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek, who control 74% of all votes. Shareholders with the largest voting power are Martin Lorentzon (42.5%), Daniel Ek (31.6%), Baillie Gifford (5.1%), and T. Rowe Price (1.8%)
As you can see above, voting power is not equal to ownership. The reason why founders have outsized voting power compared to their ownership stake is that they hold special beneficiary certificates that Spotify issued.
- Common Spotify Shares: These are regular shares traded on NYSE and have one vote per share. (Ticker: SPOT)
- Special Beneficiary Certificates: These are held only by founders and are not tradable. They have no economic rights but give their holders extra votes. Ten certificates were issued for each common share owned by the founders.
Spotify founders Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek own 19% of Spotify and, thanks to beneficiary certificates, control 74% of all votes.
- Their outsized voting power is a result of special Beneficiary Certificates that Spotify issued to both founders. They got ten(10) certificates for each share they owned.
- Beneficiary Certificates are not shares since they don’t have any economic rights associated with them. The only thing they give to its holder is extra votes.
- Despite not being standard B-class super-voting shares as we are used from US-based companies like Alphabet, Meta, or Roblox, those certificates have the same effect and are equivalent to founders owning B-class shares with 11 votes per share.
- Spotify’s board of directors has quite a large leeway in how it can decide to who to issue beneficiary certificates.
- The two founders are in control of the company, not only as shareholders. Daniel Ek serves as CEO of Spotify and chairman of the board. Martin Lorentzon is a Spotify board member and served as chairman for a long time.
Spotify’s insiders that have the biggest influence over the company, are obviously CEO and chairman Daniel Ek and board member Martin Lorentzon.
- Spotify’s board has 11 directors who are reelected annually
- The insider with the largest share ownership, except founders, is board member Barry McCarthy with a 0.24% ownership stake. He is the former CFO of Spotify and, long before that, worked also as CFO of Netflix.
- Nobody else from the board of directors or executive officers (except founders) holds more than 0.05% of Spotify’s shares.
- Member of Spotify’s board is also Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix.
- Spotify’s board has two classes of directors. Class A is represented by two founders and Shishir Mehrotra, former Google executive and co-founder and CEO of Coda. The rest of the board members are class B directors.
- The purpose of this distinction is that for the board to have a quorum, there has to be at least one director from each class present.
🗳️ Breakdown of Spotify’s Outstanding Shares and Votes by Top Shareholders
Spotify Technology S.A. had a total of 193 million outstanding shares as of December 2022. The following table shows how many shares each Spotify’s large shareholder holds.
| Spotify's Outstanding Shares by Shareholder | |||||||||
In millions of shares as of December 2022| Shareholder | Class A | Total | % Share | | |||||
| Baillie Gifford | 28 | 28 | 14.5% | |||||
| Martin Lorentzon | 21 | 21 | 11.1% | |||||
| Tencent | 17 | 17 | 8.6% | |||||
| Daniel Ek | 14 | 14 | 7.5% | |||||
| T. Rowe Price | 10 | 10 | 5.0% | |||||
| Other | 103 | 103 | 53.3% | |||||
| Total (# millions) | 193 | 193 | 100.0% | ||||||
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | |||||||||
| Source: Multiple SEC filings | |||||||||
There were 543 million votes distributed among shareholders of Spotify Technology S.A.. The table below shows the total number of votes for each large shareholder.
| Spotify's Vote Control by Shareholder | |||||||||||||
In millions of votes as of December 2022| Shareholder | Class A | Class B | Proxy | Total | % Share | | |||||||
| Martin Lorentzon | 21 | 210 | - | 231 | 42.5% | |||||||
| Daniel Ek | 14 | 140 | 17 | 171 | 31.6% | |||||||
| Baillie Gifford | 28 | - | - | 28 | 5.1% | |||||||
| T. Rowe Price | 10 | - | - | 10 | 1.8% | |||||||
| Tencent | 17 | - | -17 | - | 0.0% | |||||||
| Other | 103 | - | - | 103 | 19.0% | |||||||
| Total (# millions) | 193 | 350 | - | 543 | 100.0% | ||||||||
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | |||||||||||||
| Source: Multiple SEC filings | |||||||||||||
You can see that the beneficiary certificates that founders hold are the key to their control of the company. I show them in Class B column. However they are not shares since they don’t give their holder any economic rights, only extra votes.
💵 Breakdown of Spotify’s Market Value by Shareholder
The following table summarizes how much is each shareholder’s stake in Spotify Technology S.A. worth.
However, keep in mind that a stake in Spotify could be just one part of their portfolio, and their total worth could be bigger, thanks to other investments. It could also be lower if they have debts.
| Spotify's Market Value by Shareholder | |||||||||
Market value in billions $ as of December 2022| Shareholder | Class A | Total | % Share | | |||||
| Baillie Gifford | $2.2 | $2.2 | 14.5% | |||||
| Martin Lorentzon | $1.7 | $1.7 | 11.1% | |||||
| Tencent | $1.3 | $1.3 | 8.6% | |||||
| Daniel Ek | $1.1 | $1.1 | 7.5% | |||||
| T. Rowe Price | $0.8 | $0.8 | 5.0% | |||||
| Other | $8.1 | $8.1 | 53.3% | |||||
| Total ($ billions) | $15.3 | $15.3 | 100.0% | ||||||
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | |||||||||
| Source: Multiple SEC filings | |||||||||
Let’s now look at each Spotify shareholder individually.
📒 Who Are Spotify’s Largest Shareholders?
Let’s now go through the list of the largest shareholders of Spotify Technology S.A. one by one and look at who they are, how many shares they own, what is their voting power, and how much is their stake in Spotify worth.
#1 Baillie Gifford (14.5%)
Baillie Gifford is the largest shareholder of Spotify, owning 14.5% of its shares. However, because other shareholders hold super-voting shares, Baillie Gifford’s voting power is only 5.1%. As of December 2022, the market value of Baillie Gifford’s stake in Spotify was $2.2 billion.
Baillie Gifford owned 28 million shares in Spotify and controlled 28 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.
Baillie Gifford is an investment management firm founded in 1908 in Scotland, where it still has its headquarters. It grew to become an important player, managing investments for institutional and individual investors around the world.
Baillie Gifford is privately owned by its partners.
#2 Martin Lorentzon (11.1%)
Martin Lorentzon is the second-largest shareholder of Spotify, owning 11.1% of its shares. However, Martin Lorentzon controls 42.5% of all votes thanks to owning super-voting shares. As of December 2022, the market value of Martin Lorentzon’s stake in Spotify was $1.7 billion.
Martin Lorentzon owned 21 million shares in Spotify and controlled 231 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.
Martin Lorentzon is a Swedish entrepreneur known mainly as a co-founder and largest individual shareholder of Spotify.
He became rich before founding Spotify after he exited the company Tradedoubler that he co-founded. TradeDoubler acquired another company Advertigo in 2006, whose founder was Daniel Ek. Lorentzon and Ek later co-founded Spotify.
#3 Tencent (8.6%)
Tencent is the third-largest shareholder of Spotify, owning 8.6% of its shares. However, it has no voting power since the company transferred its votes to Spotify CEO Danial Ek. As of December 2022, the market value of Tencent’s stake in Spotify was $1.3 billion.
Tencent owned 17 million shares in Spotify and controlled 0 shareholder votes as of December 2022.
Tencent Holdings Ltd is a Chinese technology and entertainment giant known mainly as the company behind WeChat, a popular Chinese messaging app.
It was founded in 1998, and its activities include gaming, social media, fintech, and video and music streaming.
#4 Daniel Ek (7.5%)
Daniel Ek owns 7.5% of Spotify’s shares. However, Daniel Ek controls 31.6% of all votes thanks to owning super-voting certificates and also because he exercises voting power for shares owned by Tencent. As of December 2022, the market value of Daniel Ek’s stake in Spotify was $1.1 billion.
Daniel Ek owned 14 million shares in Spotify and controlled 171 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.
Daniel Ek is co-founder and CEO of Spotify. Spotify is not his first startup, as he is a founder of the online advertising company Advertigo, which was later acquired by TradeDoubler.
It was the acquisition of Advertigo by TradeDoubler how Ek connected with another Swedish entrepreneur Martin Lorentzon. Together they founded Spotify in 2006.
#5 T. Rowe Price (5.0%)
T. Rowe Price owns 5.0% of Spotify’s shares. However, because other shareholders hold super-voting shares, T. Rowe Price’s voting power is only 1.8%. As of December 2022, the market value of T. Rowe Price’s stake in Spotify was $0.8 billion.
T. Rowe Price owned 10 million shares in Spotify and controlled 10 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is a highly regarded US-based investment management firm offering services worldwide. It is a public company traded on Nasdaq.
❔ Why Tencent Owns Spotify?
In December 2017, Spotify and Tencent Music Entertainment agreed to a cooperative share swap. As a result, Chinese-based giant Tencent currently owns 9% of Spotify shares, and Spotify has a similar stake in Tencent Music Entertainment, which is also publicly traded.
Another peculiarity of Tencent ownership is that Tencent holds no voting power. Voting power to those shares is exercised by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.
💸 Can Spotify Founders Sell or Transfer Their Supervoting Certificates to Somebody Else?
When Spotify founders sell their shares or transfer them in the event of their death to their heirs, the supervoting beneficiary certificates linked to those shares should cease to exist.
This means that sold or transferred stocks will, based on the rule in the company Statutes, turn into regular shares with one vote per share.
However, Spotify’s board has quite extensive powers concerning this, and they can, on a case-by-case basis, make an exception from this rule without asking shareholders for approval.
So the reality is, in extreme cases, control of the company can be transferred to different shareholders if the board agrees on it.
📅 Spotify’s History Timeline
These are selected events from Spotify’s history:
- 2006: Spotify was founded by Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek.
- 2008: Spotify launches its streaming service.
- 2016: Spotify Martin Lorentzon steps down as chairman but remains as a board member.
- 2017: Spotify and Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) agreed on a mutual share swap.
- 2018: Spotify’s initial public offering (IPO)
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