Select albums would be available only on the Premium tier for a period of time, before general release. The Financial Times reported in March 2017 that, as part of its efforts to renegotiate new licensing deals with music labels, Spotify and major record labels had agreed that Spotify would restrict some newly released albums to its Premium tier, with Spotify receiving a reduction in royalty fees to do so. In countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Spotify registered a fall in users in late February, but it has seen a recovery. On 19 June 2018, XXXTentacion’s hit single «Sad!» broke Swift’s single-day streaming record, amassing 10.4 million streams the day after he was fatally shot in Florida.

  • Google continued to monetize and profit from sites propagating climate disinformation even after the company updated their policy to prohibit placing their ads on similar sites.
  • Users find the relevant content to share and press a «soundwave-style barcode» on the display.
  • It has been referred to as «the most powerful company in the world» by BBC, and is one of the world’s most valuable brands.
  • On September 14, 2022, Google lost the appeal of a €4.125 billion (£3.5 billion) fine, which was ruled to be paid after it was proved by the European Commission that Google forced Android phone-makers to carry Google’s search and web browser apps.
  • In December 2013, the company launched a new website, «Spotify for Artists», explaining its business model and revenue data.
  • In February 2009, Spotify opened public registration for the free service tier in the United Kingdom.

Wiz, a company located in the U.S. and Israel, was cofounded in 2020 by Assaf Rappaport. In August 2024, Google would lose a lawsuit which started in 2020 in lower court, as it was found that the company had an illegal monopoly over Internet search. These centers, which will be built in Columbus and Lancaster, will power up the company’s tools, including AI technology. In early May 2023, Google announced its plans to build two additional data centers in Ohio. In September 2021, the Australian government announced plans to curb Google’s capability to sell targeted ads, claiming that the company has a monopoly on the market harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers.
The company opened on the NASDAQ National Market under the ticker symbol GOOGL with an offering of 19,605,052 shares at a price of $85 per share. At that time Page, Brin and Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for 20 years, until the year 2024. The first use of the verb on television appeared in an October 2002 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In 2003, after outgrowing two other locations, the company leased an office complex from Silicon Graphics, at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California. He had been trying to find a CEO that Page and Brin would accept for several months, but they rejected several candidates because they wanted to retain control over the company.
The most commonly perceived error is said to be caused by a lack of diverse scope within curation staff, including overlooking mainstay artists in large genres, potentially causing a categorical homogenization of musical styles; even impacting mainline artists like within hip hop with A Tribe Called Quest. Using this, users can perform various actions such as pulling playlists, launching radio stations, playing or pausing songs. Named the Car Thing, it represents the music-streaming service’s first entry into hardware devices. Spotify first announced a voice-activated music-streaming gadget for cars in May 2019. In January 2014, Spotify removed all time limits for Free users on all platforms, including on computers, which previously had a 10-hour monthly listening limit after a 6-month grace period. Users can refine playlists with additional instructions, such as «more upbeat» or «happier songs».

Google Labs

In July 2013, Google introduced the Chromecast dongle, which allows users to stream content from their smartphones to televisions. In 2025, Google announced SynthID Detector, a tool that uses watermarking to identify whether content such as text, images, audio, or video was generated using Google products. The sister service, Google AdSense, allows website owners to display these advertisements on their website and earn money every time ads are clicked. Google indexes billions of web pages to allow users to search for the information they desire through the use of keywords and operators.
Some of the premium options users may choose from include individual, duo, family, and student. There was no provision regarding worker ownership of content created, one of the initial demands. In February 2020, Spotify announced it was acquiring The Ringer, and inheriting the previously established union.

Acquisitions, podcasting and exclusivity deals

  • In January 2014, Spotify removed all time limits for Free users on all platforms, including on computers, which previously had a 10-hour monthly listening limit after a 6-month grace period.
  • In February 2020, Spotify announced it was acquiring The Ringer, and inheriting the previously established union.
  • Spotify supports integration with DJ software, allowing DJs to mix with music streamed from the platform.
  • In January 2012, the free trial periods began to expire, limiting users to ten hours of streaming each month and five plays per song.
  • Named the Car Thing, it represents the music-streaming service’s first entry into hardware devices.
  • The company subsequently announced that «48 employees have been fired over the last two years» for sexual misconduct.

Additionally, Apple stated that they have attempted to work with Spotify to integrate the service better with Apple’s products, such as Siri and Apple Watch. Two days later, Apple responded, stating that the claim was misleading rhetoric and that Spotify wanted benefits of a free app without being a free app. In a further escalation of the dispute with Apple, on 13 March 2019, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission over unfair app store practices. Spotify released the first version of its Apple Watch app in November 2018, allowing playback control of the iPhone via the watch. Furthermore, he stated that «There is nothing in Apple’s conduct that ‘amounts to a violation of applicable antitrust laws.’ Far from it. … I would be happy to facilitate an expeditious review and approval of your app as soon as you provide us with something that is compliant with the App Store’s rules».

More ways to search

According to some computer science and music experts, various music communities are often ignored or overlooked by music streaming services such as Spotify. In 2016, Spotify was criticized for allegedly making certain artists’ music harder to find than others, as these artists would release their music to the rival streaming service Apple Music before releasing it to Spotify. While the streaming music industry in general faces the same critique about inadequate payments, Spotify, being the leading service, faces particular scrutiny due to its free service tier, allowing users to listen to music for free, though with advertisements between tracks. Spotify has been criticised by artists and producers including Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke, who have argued that Spotify does not fairly compensate musicians, and both withdrew their music from the service.

Google Password Manager

The company announced the two locations will generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to supply 55,000 homes. In September 2025 Google opened their £735m AI Centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire and announced their plans for £5 bn investment in AI research, in the same month that Alphabet reached market capitalisation of $3 trillion. The new campus, reported to be the company’s largest felice bet outside the United States, will accommodate 13,000 employees.
In April 2015, Google announced Project Fi, a mobile virtual network operator, that combines Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different telecommunication providers in an effort to enable seamless connectivity and fast Internet signal. Following Google’s corporate restructure to make Alphabet Inc. its parent company, Google Fiber was moved to Alphabet’s Access division. In February 2010, Google announced the Google Fiber project, with experimental plans to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network for 50,000 to 500,000 customers in one or more American cities. Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the suite competes with existing marketing cloud offerings by companies including Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce, and IBM. In October 2016, Google announced Daydream View, a lightweight VR viewer which lets the user place their smartphone in the front hinge to view VR media.
The same December, it was announced that a $1 billion, 1,700,000-square-foot (160,000 m2) headquarters for Google would be built in Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighborhood. In March 2018, Google’s parent company Alphabet bought the nearby Chelsea Market building for $2.4 billion. In 2021, court documents revealed that between 2018 and 2020, Google ran an anti-union campaign called Project Vivian to «convince them (employees) that unions suck». Google had previously been accused of surveilling and firing employees who were suspected of organizing a workers union. The formation of the union is in response to persistent allegations of mistreatment of Google employees and a toxic workplace culture. The coalition is made up of «13 different unions representing workers in 10 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland».
In April 2015, Spotify began another round of fundraising, with a report from The Wall Street Journal stating it was seeking $400 million (equivalent to $515,700,000 in 2024), which would value the company at $8.4 billion (equivalent to $10,831,000,000 in 2024). In February 2010, Spotify received a small investment from Founders Fund, where board member Sean Parker was recruited to assist Spotify in «winning the labels over in the world’s largest music market». Spotify became profitable for the first time in 2024 with a net profit of €1.14 billion ($1.17 billion). Years after growth and expansion, a November 2012 report suggested strong momentum for the company. In 2008, just after launch, the company made a loss of 31.8 million Swedish kronor (US$4.4 million).

Google’s Global Offices sum a total of 86 locations worldwide, with 32 offices in North America, three of them in Canada and 29 in the United States, California being the state with the most Google’s offices with 9 in total including the Googleplex. In May 2015, Google announced its intention to create its own campus in Hyderabad, India. Recognized as one of the biggest ever commercial property acquisitions at the time of the deal’s announcement in January, Google submitted plans for the new headquarter to the Camden Council in June 2017. It also has product research and development operations in cities around the world, namely Sydney (birthplace location of Google Maps) and London (part of Android development). In November 2006, Google opened offices on Carnegie Mellon’s campus in Pittsburgh, focusing on shopping-related advertisement coding and smartphone applications and programs. Called Google Hudson Square, the new campus is projected to more than double the number of Google employees working in New York City.

Get the details on how Search works — from the approach we take, to the technology behind it.

In December 2015, Spotify debuted Spotify Wrapped, a program that creates playlists based on each user’s most listened-to songs from the year. The features were announced by CEO Daniel Ek at a press conference, with Ek saying that a common user complaint about the service was that «Spotify is great when you know what music you want to listen to, but not when you don’t». «Follow» lets users follow artists and friends to see what they are listening to, while «Discover» directs users to new releases as well as music, review, and concert recommendations based on listening history.
The tool allows users to generate personalized playlists from text prompts describing genres, moods, artists, activities, or creative ideas like animals, movie characters, colors, or emojis. In August 2016, Spotify launched Release Radar, a personalized playlist that allows users to stay up-to-date on new music released by the artists they listen to the most. In March 2016, Spotify launched six playlists branded as Fresh Finds, including the main playlist and Fire Emoji, Basement, Hiptronix, Six Strings, and Cyclone (hip-hop, electronic, pop, guitar-driven, and experimental music respectively). In December 2015, Quartz reported that songs in Discover Weekly playlists had been streamed 1.7 billion times. Months later, Spotify tested its own version of stories (the sharing format popularized by social apps) known as «Storyline», and the focus is on allowing artists to share their own insights, inspiration, details about their creative process or other meanings behind the music. In January 2016, Spotify and music annotation service Genius formed a partnership, bringing annotation information from Genius into infocards presented while songs are playing in Spotify.
On January 21, 2019, French data regulator CNIL imposed a record €50 million fine on Google for breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. The project was canceled in December following the backlash it garnered both externally and internally within the company. In June 2022, Google agreed to pay a $118 million settlement to 15,550 female employees working in California since 2013. Google called these proposals excessive and harmful to consumers, pledging to appeal.
In a 2022 National Labor Relations Board ruling, court documents suggested that Google sponsored a secretive project—Project Vivian—to counsel its employees and to discourage them from forming unions. Also in February 2022, Google announced a $100 million fund to expand skills training and job placement for low-income Americans, in conjunction with non-profits Year Up, Social Finance, and Merit America. The company also decided to transform its office in Warsaw into a help center for refugees. Responding to the humanitarian crisis after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google announced a $15 million donation to support Ukrainian citizens. In March 2007, in partnership with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), Google hosted the first Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival at its headquarters in Mountain View. Google continued to monetize and profit from sites propagating climate disinformation even after the company updated their policy to prohibit placing their ads on similar sites.