Between 2015 and 2022, the richer the average American became, the more songs Spotify streamed globally, which is exactly the story you would expect a Spotify executive to tell you during an IPO roadshow (r = 0.960). The wallet filled; the shuffle shuffled. It is possible that these two numbers are linked; it is also possible that they are both simply going the same way, for the same fifteen reasons.
Spotify's MAUs grew from 77 million in 2015 to over 515 million by 2022, riding smartphone saturation, the family plan, and the steady extinction of the paid download. US GDP per capita rose from about $56,000 to over $76,000, carried by services, software, and the strange new category of 'creator economy.' Both are part of the same story of disposable income migrating toward subscription services, with the average American household now paying for roughly 12 separate monthly subscriptions. A back-of-envelope calculation suggests Spotify collects approximately one minute of GDP per American per month, which seems both trivial and enormous, depending on the angle.
The economy produces. The playlist shuffles. Both, somehow, remain hungry for more.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “US GDP per capita” vs “Spotify monthly active users” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
