Wikipedia says Spotify uses DRM for its audio content. Digital rights management controls how copyrighted digital media can be accessed, copied, or transferred, helping Spotify enforce licensing agreements with record labels, publishers, and other rights holders.
Spotify is a streaming service rather than a store that gives users unrestricted audio files. Its apps deliver licensed content for playback, while features such as offline listening remain tied to the appropriate account and subscription. DRM helps preserve those usage limits and discourages unauthorized copying or redistribution.
DRM is often confused with watermarking. A watermark identifies a file or its source, whereas DRM actively restricts how content can be used. Tokenization and geofencing can support digital services, but neither is the general content-protection label Wikipedia gives Spotify’s audio.
Spotify launched in 2008 as a legal alternative to unauthorized file sharing. Its proprietary software, licensing arrangements, and DRM controls are part of the technical and business system that makes on-demand streaming possible without treating every stream like an unrestricted download.