Spotify is maintaining its dominance in the music streaming market despite controversy over artist compensation, executives’ defence-industry investment and its AI policies. On Aug. 13, the IT outlet Engadget reported that Spotify has 293 million paid subscribers and 761 million monthly active users including free users.

As the industry’s largest operator, Spotify is at the centre of disputes over artist compensation. Buying a digital album individually typically costs $10 to $15, but Spotify Premium costs $13 a month in the United States.

The moves of founder and former chief executive Daniel Ek (다니엘 에크), now chairman of the board, have also fuelled backlash. He invested $694 million last year in defence technology startup Helsing and currently serves as chairman of that company’s board. After that, some artists pulled their music from Spotify. Still, Spotify’s revenue, profit and monthly active users all rose in the latest quarter.

Its AI policies have also become a point of contention. Spotify has effectively not actively managed AI-generated content, and as a result AI music has appeared across the platform. The company plans to label AI-made musicians as an "AI persona", but it relies on voluntary disclosure by the account operator. For popular accounts, it plans to assess whether they are an "AI persona possibility" through human review and AI-based screening.

Controversy has also continued over expanding AI features for users. Spotify has offered an AI-based DJ feature and a tool that creates playlists using natural language. It also plans to add a feature that lets users make AI remixes and covers based on a licensing deal with Universal. This feature will be launched as an add-on product for the premium plan.

Still, choosing another music service is not easy. There are many ways to listen to music, but most come with constraints such as cost, convenience and the hassle of moving existing music data to another service.

The controversy shows that Spotify’s market dominance is also putting its service operations and direction for adopting AI under scrutiny. In particular, its compensation structure, AI labelling and expansion of user features remain tasks that will require continued review, separate from the platform’s growth.