What is President Obama listening to while vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard this week?
Otis Redding, Justin Timberlake and a little bit of salsa, according to the #POTUSPlaylist, released Friday on Spotify, the music-streaming service. The list, divided into daytime and nighttime playlists, includes 40 of Obama’s “favorite songs for the summer,” the White House said.
This is good news for anyone who has ever wondered what Obama bops along to before a round of golf. It’s also good news for Spotify, a Swedish startup whose U.S. customer base is rapidly growing. In June, Spotify found itself in a battle for listeners’ attention when Apple introduced Apple Music, a subscription-based, music-streaming service. Hey, Spotify said, that’s just like us! And they have more money!
The outlook looked brighter two days later after Apple’s announcement, the Wall Street Journal reported that Spotify had raised $526 million from investors in a round of financing, putting the company’s value at $8.5 billion. (Apple’s value, at $733 billion, is obviously no competition, but consider that Spotify was worth $1 billion and hadn’t even made a profit just two years ago.) This kind of growth seemed to suggest that, when it comes to the music-streaming market, Spotify stood a chance to hold its own in the ring with Apple.