Spotify's employees 2018-2023, by region

Spotify employs thousands of people around the world, with the majority based in the United States – 4,574 as of 2023. Second was Sweden with 1,706 employees, and 1048 people working for the company at that time were based in the United Kingdom. The company is legally domiciled in Luxembourg and has its administrative headquarters in Stockholm where the streaming platform was founded back in 2006. 

Working at Spotify: equality and diversity data

The streaming behemoth fascinated interested parties for years before finally going public, and with all eyes on Spotify after its first profit in early 2019, it doesn’t look like the media hype around one of the world’s most major streaming services will die down any time soon. Whilst many argue that all publicity is good publicity, internationally dominant forces like Spotify are hearing loud pleas for transparency, particularly when it comes to its workforce.

As minority groups fight for representation, it has become increasingly important for market leaders to not only demonstrate support for diversity in the workplace, but to admit to how their own businesses perform in that regard as well.

In July 2018, Spotify published data showing the gender distribution within multiple categories of its business, including how many women work for Spotify as a percentage of total employees, and in which roles. The company revealed that women made up 38.4 percent of managers and 38.7 percent of all persons employed, and almost 32 percent of leadership roles (director level and above) were also filled by women.

Spotify also disclosed the ethnicity breakdown of its corporate structure, announcing that just under 15 percent of its employees were Asian, 5.5 percent were Hispanic and 6.1 percent Black.

Many will argue that there is still work to be done – and certainly in terms of achieving a more even balance across the board within Spotify, there is. However, transparency among large companies is generally favorable, and a time may indeed come when more of Spotify’s millions of website visitors, users and subscribers grow curious about how one of their favorite streaming services operates from the inside.