Spotify’s New Terms Give Them a License to Use Your Playlists, Photos, and Messages, But For What?

Spotify has updated its Terms of Use. These changes apply to everyone using Spotify, including subscribers and free users. What they do not cover is the music delivered to Spotify through labels and distributors.

 

The new Terms of Use Agreement defines anything you post on Spotify as “User Content.” That includes your profile photos, playlist covers, bios, text, images, and now messages through Spotify’s direct messaging feature. By using Spotify, you grant the company a license to reproduce, make available, perform, display, translate, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, and otherwise use that User Content. The license is global, royalty-free, irrevocable, and sub-licensable.

 

In plain terms, anything you upload to Spotify as a user can be used across its service, in its marketing, and in whatever features it develops next.

 

What has not changed is the treatment of your music catalog. Your recordings do not fall under the Terms of Use. They reach Spotify through licensing contracts with labels or distributors. Those contracts grant Spotify the right to stream your music, not to use it to create derivative works, or exploit it beyond streaming. The new consumer-facing terms cannot override those agreements.

 

It is important to be clear about what is really at stake. Spotify cannot claim ownership of the music in your playlists. But it can use the things you add on top of that music, the names you give your playlists, the descriptions you write, the images you upload, your profile photo, your bio, and even your private messages.

 

In other words, the songs may not belong to Spotify, but the way you present them does. The details that make the platform feel personal are now treated as assets for Spotify to use, repurpose, and profit from.