Ek and Lorentzon wanted to offer a legal streaming service – one which actually paid artists for their music – but their model allowed listeners to choose whether or not they paid for the music. After two years of development, Spotify was finally launched on 7 October 2008. Initially the service was invite-only and limited to Scandinavia, the UK, France and Spain. Spotify pleaded with record companies to open up their catalogues so they could offer their listeners as many different types of music as possible, legally, through the platform.

Spotify conquered the music industry, but still can't make a profit