What Spotify's Ownership Structure Looks Like

Universal Music, in its deal with Taylor Swift, committed that any sale of its Spotify shares would result in a distribution of money to UMG-signed artists, with unrecouped balances being disregarded

Martin Lorentzon och Daniel Ek - Årets Svensk i Världen 2014 - Svenskar i Världen

Lately, I've been having conversations about ownership, which has piqued my interest in the ownership structures of some companies that I admire like Spotify, for starters.

At Spotify, the predominant owners are its two founders, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. Alongside them, some institutional investors have also held stakes in the company for a considerable period. Notable among these investors are T.Rowe Price & Associates, an investment management firm; Baillie Gifford, another investment firm; Morgan Stanley, a banking giant, and Tencent Holdings, a tech & multimedia juggernaut.

Daniel Ek, Spotify’s co-founder and CEO, stands as the single largest shareholder, holding 31.93 million shares, which accounts for 16.6% of the total (this includes his recent 400,000 share sales I recently highlighted).

Baillie Gifford, an Edinburgh-based investment firm, is the second-largest shareholder, owning about 14.5% of the company's total shares.

Another significant player is Martin Lorentzon, co-founder and Director at Spotify, who holds about 11.1% of the company's total shares.

Then Tencent (through Tencent Holdings and Tencent Music Entertainment) holds about 8.6% of Spotify's shares. Interestingly, Spotify reciprocates as a shareholder in Tencent Music due to a co-ownership agreement established in 2017 before Spotify's IPO.

T.Rowe Price & Associates, an investment management firm headquartered in New York, maintains a 5.0% ownership stake in Spotify.

While, Morgan Stanley, another investment bank, also based in New York, possesses 4.4% of Spotify shares.

Universal Music holds about 3.30% ownership in Spotify; while Sony Music and Warner Music have sold SOME and ALL of their shares in the company respectively.

Universal Music Group, however, has chosen to retain its holdings and has not participated in any selling thus far. In its deal with Taylor Swift in 2018, Universal Music committed that any sale of its Spotify shares would result in a distribution of money across UMG-signed artists, with unrecouped balances being disregarded.