Spotify unveils 2030 goals, Large Taste Model

Spotify used its May 21 Investor Day in New York to set out 2030 targets and a product roadmap built around what it calls a “Large Taste Model.” The company said the model is trained on 3.4 trillion daily taste signals and will push the service beyond recommendation toward what executives described as “interactive media.” The May 21 event was Spotify’s third Investor Day and the first under co-CEOs Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström, who took the top jobs at the start of 2026. Spotify said it now operates in 184 markets and has 761 million active users, including nearly 300 million subscribers. The company paired that product pitch with long-range financial goals. (newsroom.spotify.com) Spotify’s investor materials said Chief Financial Officer Christian Luiga would present long-range revenue and free cash flow targets through 2035, and outside summaries of the event cited 2030 goals including $100 billion in revenue, 1 billion users, a mid-teens revenue compound annual growth rate and gross margins of 35% to 40%. ### What is Spotify’s “Large Taste Model”? Spotify said the model is proprietary and built on years of user interaction data across music, podcasts and audiobooks. In its Investor Day recap, the company said the system is “fueled by 3.4 trillion daily taste signals” and is meant to support “truly personal, interactive media.” (investorday.byspotify.com) Gustav Söderström said at the event, according to Spotify’s recap, that the company’s AI advantage comes from applying general intelligence to its own “Large Taste Model,” rather than trying to build a frontier large language model. Spotify said that work is aimed at moving the service “from curation and recommendation into an era of generation.” (newsroom.spotify.com) ### What did Spotify say changes for listeners? Spotify said the shift is from “single player and passive” listening to “multiplayer and interactive” use. The company pointed to features such as Jam, which it said has been used by almost 50 million people, and collaborative playlists, which it said have also been streamed by almost 50 million people. (publicnow.com) Techloy, citing the Investor Day presentation, said Spotify tied that strategy to products such as Prompted Playlists and evolving Taste Profiles. Spotify’s own recap framed the same effort as giving users more ways to “create, discover, and connect.” ### Where does Universal Music Group fit in? (newsroom.spotify.com) Spotify and Universal Music Group said on May 21 they signed recorded-music and publishing agreements to let Spotify launch a tool for fan-made covers and remixes. The companies said the product will be a paid add-on for Spotify Premium users and will include consent, credit and compensation for participating artists and songwriters. (techloy.com) Universal Music Group said the tool would allow fans to create covers and remixes of songs from participating catalogs. Spotify included that announcement in its Investor Day recap as part of its broader AI and fan-engagement push. (newsroom.spotify.com) ### How did investors react? CNBC reported Spotify shares jumped on May 21 after the company laid out its 2030 guidance and announced the UMG AI deal. CNBC said the company forecast revenue growth at a mid-teens compound annual rate through 2030 and gross margins of 35% to 40%. Spotify’s investor site says a webcast replay and presentation materials were to be made available after the event. (universalmusic.com) The company’s events page now lists the May 21 webcast and appendix, alongside its April 28 first-quarter earnings materials. (investorday.byspotify.com) (cnbc.com)