Spotify opened its first office outside Sweden in London.
London was a natural early expansion point for Spotify because the United Kingdom was one of the company’s first major markets beyond its Scandinavian home. Spotify opened UK registration for its free service in February 2009, helping establish Britain as an important audience and business base during the company’s early international growth.
The move came only a few years after Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon founded Spotify in Stockholm in 2006. The service launched publicly in several European markets in 2008, but London quickly became a key centre for partnerships, music-industry relationships, marketing, and later technology work.
Readers sometimes confuse Spotify’s first overseas office with its later offices in the United States. Spotify entered the US market in 2011, after its European expansion was already under way. London therefore belongs to Spotify’s first international chapter, well before the company developed its large global office network.