From “exciting stuff happens”
to “What do you want to play?”

The November 2006 capture, on the left, is the oldest homepage we use, and it holds three lines of text: a logo whose image is missing from this replay, the spelled-out address and the email box. Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon had founded Spotify that year.^[1]

Even the name was an accident. Spotify’s brand team says it was misheard in a brainstorm while the two founders were throwing around ideas, and the meaning came later. The explanation most people know, a blend of spot and identify, is what the team calls the lore.^[2]

By June 2007, on the right, the page has a green square logo with a tagline under it, Everyone Loves Music, and a headline: Welcome to Spotify – a new music experience! The text is chatty, these days we demand instant gratification, and the business plan fits in two sentences: we don’t want you to pay for it. Our service is advertising funded, so it costs you nothing to use.

Still no music to play. The email box now has a button, Sign me up!, the menu has a Beta test link, and the last paragraph is for insiders: If you happen to be one of those blessed children who already have their hands on a beta account, log in on the beta site.

We have no picture for 2008. The replays we checked are unstyled, and the code of the January 2008 capture still lists Beta-test in its menu. In October 2008 Spotify launched in Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK.^[1] The company later described what it set out to build as a legal, better alternative to piracy.^[3]

The June 2009 homepage is the first one that looks like a product page. A woman in red stands beside a speech bubble full of notes, next to A world of music and Instant, simple and free. A green button says Get started. Below are three plans: Free, All the music – no cost; Day pass, 24 hours ad-free; and Premium, Monthly subscription, no ads. All three are greyed out.

That is what the archive’s crawler was told, three times. A faded BETA stamp sits under the logo. The page’s code explains the rest: Spotify free is currently in an invitation-only beta, which means you need to have received an invitation token to access the service. Spotify went mobile that September.^[1]

In June 2010 a small blue Twitter bird sits beside the logo, next to a line from the company’s feed: Create the most popular playlist and see Christina Aguilera live. The big green banner asks Like to try Spotify? and offers Spotify Open, which lets you experience Spotify for free. Under it, three tiles: Have an invitation code?, Give the gift of music and Offline mode, with a switch set to ON.

The invitation tile had a problem, and the page’s code admits it, typo and all:

The country menu in that code lists Finland, France, International, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom. In September 2010 Spotify reported 10 million users.^[1]

The June 2011 page keeps the green and drops the invitations. The slideshow is caught on Listen to music: Join millions of happy Spotify users. Just download Spotify to your computer and let the music begin. Three boxes walk you through it, from Get Spotify today. It’s free! to Search and play, where Over 13m songs are now yours to play.

The feed line at the top is a job ad for Customer Service Advisors in Cambridge, UK. Spotify launched in the United States a month later, in July 2011.^[1]

A year after Just download Spotify to your computer, the desktop app gets one line of small print: Also available for free on Windows, Mac & Mobile. The June 2012 capture is Spotify’s US page, and it sells the iPad app. A hand holds one over a breakfast table, with Ellie Goulding on the screen, under Lean, green, music machine. The main button says Free on the App Store, and the browser tab reads iPad - Spotify.

In June 2013 the screenshots of the software are gone. A photograph fills the screen: a cup of coffee, and Soundtrack your life. The perfect songs for your workout, your night in, or your journey to work. Along the bottom runs a strip of album covers. The page’s code left a note about it: 128px is the bottom area covered by the toplist album artwork strip; number is somewhat arbitrary.

The logo has changed too. The green square is now a green circle with three curved sound waves, next to the word Spotify. Further down, the code lists three plans: Free, Made possible by ads; Unlimited at $4.99 a month; and Premium at $9.99 a month. Its footer has a link, Find us on Google+.

The June 2014 still opens on friends lying on a sofa, under 10 million people love Spotify Premium. and Buy 3 months of Premium for $9.99. That banner isn’t in the page’s saved HTML, which has a different headline: Music for everyone. Spotify is now free on mobile, tablet and computer. Spotify first offered free listening on mobile in 2013.^[1]

The June 2015 US page is orange and red. A woman with raised arms is printed in two tones, next to Get 3 months of Premium for $0.99. Below, a yellow block says Music for everyone. and a white one says Your daily soundtrack.

According to the agency COLLINS, its Spotify identity work included this two-tone treatment, a technique that draws from the duotone screen-printing used throughout music’s history.^[5]

About two weeks after this capture, Spotify changed something smaller: an update to its iOS app brought a brighter green logo. That was enough. Digiday described it as a bright shade of hazardous green and quoted Twitter reactions calling it hideous and comparing the logo to something slimed by Nickelodeon.^[4] On Spotify’s own forum, one user asked for a reversal:^[10]

⤢ Full page

The June 2015, December 2015, June 2017 and June 2018 captures all show the same top-banner offer. On the last day of 2015 it is dark blue: 3 months of Premium for $0.99, Only $9.99/month afterwards. In June 2017 it is a coral gradient with soft circles, and in June 2018 it looks almost the same.

The slides behind it, in the code, change more: from Premium for your whole family. Just $14.99. in 2017 to Premium for Students, now with Hulu. Only $4.99/month. and Xbox One in 2018.

Scroll down the December 2015 page and a pink band asks How did 2015 sound to you?, with a button, Get Spotify’s Year In Music. Spotify dates its Wrapped tradition to that month, when it still went by that name.^[1]

We have no usable homepage from 2016. The year still left a mark in Spotify’s records:

The change that mattered in 2018 is in the footer, which the stills don’t reach but the code keeps. In 2017 it lists About, Jobs, Press and News. In 2018 the press links give way to For the Record, and a new link appears: Investors. Two months before, in April 2018, Spotify had listed on the New York Stock Exchange as SPOT.^[1]

On the day of the debut, the exchange welcomed the Swedish company by flying a Swiss flag at its entrance.^[6]

The June 2019 homepage leads with the free plan. The gradient banner says Music for everyone. and Millions of songs. No credit card needed., with a green button, GET SPOTIFY FREE. The $0.99 offer drops to a green box further down, with a deadline: Offer ends Jun 30, 2019.

That February, Daniel Ek had announced the purchase of two podcast companies, Gimlet and Anchor.^[7] The June banner still says songs, not podcasts.

In June 2020 Premium is back on top, now with three months for free. The banner is flat pink: Get 3 months of Premium for free, Enjoy endless ad-free music - even offline. Below it, an orange band repeats the free plan. The footer gains a line of fine print for one US state: Additional CA Privacy Disclosures.

That December, the year-end list that began as Year in Music crowned someone new. Bad Bunny became the world’s most-streamed artist on Spotify Wrapped, the first non-English-speaking artist with the title.^[1]

The May 2021 US capture, on the left, stacks a mint-green Premium banner, Get 3 months of Premium for free, above a new slogan on blue: Listening is everything. The line under it adds a word that wasn’t in the 2019 or 2020 banners: Millions of songs and podcasts. No credit card needed.

By June 2022 the slogan is the whole page. Listening is everything runs across the blue in huge green letters, over the same small line and one button, GET SPOTIFY FREE. No price, no photo. The footer has a new product link, Car Thing, and that year Spotify moved into audiobooks.^[8] It is the last capture here that looks like a sales page.

For 2023 and 2024 the archive’s replays show only a loading skeleton or an error. The homepage had become the web player, and the player doesn’t replay well.

The January 1, 2025 capture does. The browser tab says Spotify - Web Player: Music for everyone. A pink banner says Get Premium, and under it come rows of covers: popular artists, albums and radio stations.

Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift share the popular-artists row with Brenda Lee. It is New Year’s Day, and the row continues in the code with Bobby Helms, Frank Sinatra, Wham!, Michael Bublé and Dean Martin. Among the popular albums, between HIT ME HARD AND SOFT and Wicked: The Soundtrack, sits 10 Hours of Continuous Rain Sounds for Sleeping.

That December, Wrapped set a record: over 200 million fans looked back at their year within the first 24 hours.^[1]

The last frame is the live site, which we shot from Poland, so the trending songs are the ones Spotify showed in Poland: Mami, NIENAWIDZĘ WARSZAWY, Balety Ale To Vixa. On the left, Your Library suggests Create your first playlist. When we checked the US address on October 8, 2026, www.spotify.com/us/ redirected to this player.^[9]

The search box at the top asks What do you want to play? Spotify knows the most common answer:

In 2006 the only thing on spotify.com you could use was a box for your email, so the company could tell you when exciting stuff happens. In 2007 the button under it said Sign me up!.

In 2026 there is still a sign-up button. It sits at the right end of a bar at the bottom of the screen, Sign up free, next to a line that reads Sign up to get unlimited songs and podcasts with occasional ads. No credit card needed. Above it are the songs.

2007 · Sign me up!2026 · Sign up free

◀ ▶