Spotify

Harry and Meghan reveal Spotify Covid row concerns

The couple said they were "committed to continuing" a content deal worth an estimated $25m (£18m) and will continue to lobby Spotify bosses for changes.

Top artists have pulled songs from the streaming service in protest at its work with Joe Rogan, a US podcast host who has interviewed vaccine-sceptics.

Neil Young is among those to cut ties.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Sussexes' Archewell Foundation warned of the impact of "rampant mis and disinformation".

Adele gets Spotify to take shuffle button off all album pages

The singer tweeted: "We don't create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason.

"Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening."

The streaming service replied "anything for you". A statement later hailed their "new premium feature... to make play the default button on all albums".

A Spotify spokesperson said they were "excited" to be rolling out the feature which was "long requested by both users and artists".

Spotify reveals 2020's most-streamed songs

Drake was the most popular artist in the UK, reclaiming the number one position from Ed Sheeran.

The Weeknd's Blinding Lights was the most-played song in the UK, while Lewis Capaldi's Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent was the top album.

And Bad Bunny was the biggest artist globally, amassing 8.3bn streams.

The Puerto Rican star's second album YHLQMDLG notched up 3.3 billion streams, followed by The Weeknd's After Hours and Post Malone's Hollywood's Bleeding (You can read more about Bad Bunny's success at the bottom of this article).

Oasis' 'Wonderwall' first 90s song to hit one billion streams

The English rock band hit the milestone just two weeks ahead of the track's 25th anniversary - originally released on October 30, 1995.

The chart-topping single is featured on Oasis' second full-length album, (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, which turned 25 in early October.

The album was back at number three on the UK Official Album Chart on Thursday - it's highest position since 1996 - following the anniversary.

In March 1996, the song remained at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart for one week.

Spotify hits 130 million subscribers amid Covid-19

The music-streaming platform says it gained six million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020.

It said the figures fell into the higher end of what had been predicted before the coronavirus outbreak.

But analysts have warned Spotify's quarterly results may not be as positive as the company suggests.

Spotify said a double-digit rise in quarterly revenue had helped offset a decline in ad sales, which contributed less than 10% of its overall revenue.

Spotify ad banned for causing 'distress' to children

The advert mimicked a horror film and showed young people being menaced by a scary doll when they played a particular song.

In its ruling, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the setting and events were "particularly likely" to scare younger viewers.

Spotify has been told to make sure its future adverts are fit for children to watch and are targeted appropriately.

In a statement, Spotify said: "We acknowledge the ruling from the ASA and regret any distress the ad may have caused the complainant."

Taylor Swiftly breaks four YouTube and Spotify records

In just four days, the star has broken four major streaming records, beating the likes of Adele and Ed Sheeran.

Look What You Made Me Do was played a total of 10,129,087 times on Spotify last Friday, the day of its release, more than any other song has achieved in a single day.

The video also broke YouTube's one-day streaming record.

Jay Z pulls most of his music off Spotify

Spotify told Newsbeat: "We can confirm that some of Jay Z's catalogue has been removed at the request of the artist."

Jay Z bought his own streaming service, Tidal, in 2015 for £45m.

But it only has around three million subscribers.

That compares to Spotify's 50 million paying subscribers and Apple Music's 20 million while Deezer, Google Play Music and Amazon Music still lag behind.

Spotify ads 'launched virus pop-ups'

The so-called malvertising affected Spotify's subscription-free service on Windows, Mac and Linux machines.

People reported that virus-infected pop-up websites were appearing while they listened to music.

Spotify said in a statement: "We have now identified the source of the problem and have shut it down."

It said "questionable website pop-ups" had affected a "small number of users".

Adele's 25 to be available on streaming sites

When it was released in November, it could only be bought physically or downloaded.

The album, which will be available to members on Friday, includes the songs Hello and When We Were Young.

In June, Apple reached an agreement with two leading indie music groups, paving the way for thousands of labels to join its new streaming service.