#2 Spotify

Spotify provides access to more than 40 million songs. As of February 2019, it had 207 million monthly active users, including 96 million paying subscribers. Unlike physical or download sales, which pay artists a fixed price per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on the number of artists' streams as a proportion of total songs streamed. It distributes approximately 70% of total revenue to rights holders, who then pay artists based on their individual agreements. Spotify has faced criticism from artists and producers including Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke, who argued that it does not fairly compensate musicians. In April 2017, as part of its efforts to renegotiate license deals for an interest in going public, Spotify announced that artists will be able to make albums temporarily exclusive to the Premium service if they are part of Universal Music Group or Merlin Network. On 28 February 2018, Spotify filed for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Spotify's shares began trading on 3 April 2018.