105/264 One prominent example of how Spotify enabled an aspiring artist to reach a global audience is international pop star Lorde. Lorde started out as a singer­songwriter from New Zealand looking to break out with her new single, “Royals,” when Sean Parker added her single to his popular playlist Hipster International. After approximately one month, Lorde had jumped past prominent artists such as Katy Perry, Drake, and Lady Gaga to land at the top of Spotify’s Viral Chart, and after eight months, she had reached over 100 million streams on Spotify and was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Another example is Lauv, who we identified as a talented new artist and helped succeed by helping Spotify Users discover his music. Prior to 2016, Lauv was an indie artist with a limited number of mainstream fans. In early 2017, Lauv’s track “The Other” was added to Today’s Top Hits. The song quickly grew in popularity, with average daily streams of the song increasing nearly threefold in the following three months, growing to approximately 750,000 streams per day. Approximately 70% of those streams came from our programmed playlists. In the middle of 2017, after the success of “The Other,” we were able to help Lauv build his brand identity and personal profile. His next song “I Like Me Better” was released in May 2017 and, after its subsequent inclusion into our curated playlists as well as our machine­generated playlists, it peaked at over 4 million streams per day. We believe that we are uniquely positioned to help artists reach their full potential. Many of our Users also rely on Spotify to help soundtrack their day, through editorially­curated playlists like RapCaviar or personalized machine­generated playlists like Discover Weekly, Daily Mix, or Release Radar. Our machine­generated playlists have been made possible by our investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning, which power our music discovery engine. We now program approximately 31% of all listening on Spotify across these and other playlists, compared to less than 20% two years ago. As Users choose to let Spotify program more of their listening, all participants in the music ecosystem benefit. Users discover new music and are still able to listen to their favorite classics, while new and established artists are able to grow their exposure and gain fans. Using our artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, we are able to find, promote and program songs whether they are established hits or “hidden gems.” This enables Users to find great content that is personalized for them, but that may not be currently in their personal libraries or at the top of the charts. Spotify—Building a Two­Sided Marketplace We are building a two­sided music marketplace for Users and artists, which is powered by data, analytics, and software. We have been instrumental in reshaping the way in which our Users enjoy, discover, and share music. Spotify Users can choose exactly what they want to listen to, can allow our platform to create their music experience by listening to our personalized and curated playlists, or can choose a mix of the two. Spotify provides fans with a way to discover and enjoy music, and artists with an additional avenue to showcase and be compensated for their creative works. For artists, Spotify provides a platform from which they can reach and interact with their fans, as well as analytics which provide a better and more thorough understanding of their fan base. Given Spotify’s large audience, we are able to provide artists with unique insights into their fan base. These insights enable artists to promote music their audiences are likely to enjoy, to plan concerts and events according to where their fans are, and to actively communicate with fans who are interested in their music. Because artists can target the Users who are most likely to enjoy their content, they are able to increase their royalty­based revenue and bolster revenue from ancillary services, such as concerts and merchandise. Providing this information to artists helps them to support themselves and to be able to live off of their creative work. 98