Round-Up: February 2026
Spotify Record Q4 Growth
Spotify closed 2025 with a record-breaking Q4, adding 38 million monthly active users, the biggest quarterly jump in its history. The growth reinforces Spotify’s position as the dominant global streaming platform, particularly in emerging markets, where ad supported listening continues to fuel scale.
At the same time, the platform’s strategy is becoming clearer: grow MAUs aggressively, then layer in context, discovery tools and AI-assisted engagement to convert listeners into long-term users. Read more at Music Week
SoundCloud’s Genre Momentum
SoundCloud’s latest intelligence and genre data shows techno and dubstep as its fastest growing genres, underlining the platform’s role as a testing ground for underground and electronic scenes before they break into the mainstream streaming economy. Read more at Billboard
Bandcamp Doubles Down on Fairness
With Bandcamp Friday returning, the platform reaffirmed its positioning as an “even playing field” for artists, especially important as wider industry debates around AI, attribution and fair compensation intensify. Read more at Music Week
YouTube and Rights Revenues
SoundExchange’s 2026 report highlights continued growth in the neighbouring rights market, driven in part by YouTube and digital radio usage — reminding the industry that streaming revenue isn’t just about DSPs, but the wider digital ecosystem. Digital Music News
New Features & Platform Moves
Spotify adds ‘About the Song’
Spotify rolled out “About the Song”, a feature designed to add context to music discovery offering background, credits and cultural information alongside tracks. It’s a clear signal that discovery is no longer just algorithmic; platforms want to educate and deepen engagement, not just autoplay. Hypebot
YouTube Music pushes lyrics behind Premium
YouTube Music announced that lyrics viewing is now tied to Premium subscriptions, a move that subtly shifts a long free feature into a paid incentive and reflects a wider trend of platforms tightening what sits behind the paywall. Digital Music News
SoundCloud data as strategy
SoundCloud’s 2026 Intelligence Study isn’t just reporting trends — it actively encourages artists to use platform data to shape release strategies, fan engagement and genre positioning. Data literacy is becoming a creative skill. Read more at Hypebot
AI
Is AI driven discovery still “organic”?
Hypebot raised a key question this month: when discovery is powered by AI, does it still feel authentic? As platforms lean harder on personalisation models, the tension between automation and human taste making is becoming impossible to ignore.
Spotify’s AI ‘Honk’ tool sparks concern
Spotify’s AI “Honk” tool designed to help generate derivative works, has triggered debate around licensing, ownership and originality. Billboard reports growing concern from rights holders about how AI-assisted creation fits within existing copyright frameworks.
What February tells us about streaming in 2026
Discovery is evolving from passive autoplay to context-rich, AI-assisted experiences
Platforms are increasingly drawing hard lines on AI, rather than leaving it ambiguous
Genre growth is happening outside the mainstream first — especially on SoundCloud and Audiomack
Monetisation strategies are tightening, with previously free features moving behind paywalls
Data, context and transparency are becoming as important as scale
February wasn’t about flashy launches, it was about platforms quietly redefining control, creativity and value in streaming.