Functional music

Functional music and noise — think sleep sounds, light piano, meditation beats, and non-music noise — has existed for decades, from elevator muzak to white noise machines.

The combination of smartphones and streaming has made these offerings more accessible. When Spotify listeners want background noise for focus or relaxation, they look for music from the functional genre.

• How popular is functional music on Spotify?

  Functional music represents a very small amount of Spotify’s total streamshare, and hasn’t significantly changed in a decade.

  The presence of functional music on Spotify doesn’t undermine ambient art. When people want artful ambient music, they’ll seek it out. They choose something functional when they need background noise for focus or relaxation. These categories address different needs and aren’t competing for the same audience.

• Does Spotify own or create functional music?

  No. Music on Spotify, including functional music, is created, owned, and uploaded by licensed third parties. Much of the functional music on streaming services comes from established production music companies run by professional musicians.

• What is Spotify’s role with functional music?

  Spotify’s role has been to work with licensors specializing in these genres, and to curate playlists highlighting what listeners are already searching for. Like other playlist categories, editors constantly update and improve the playlist sets, reflecting how users engage with the content as they add and remove tracks over time. Just how licensors specializing in country, hip-hop, or rock genres tend to provide music that performs well in country, hip hop, or rock playlists, production music companies provide functional music that performs well in these functional playlists. Again, Spotify does not create, own, or upload any music — functional or otherwise.

• How can I pitch functional music for playlisting?

  As with all upcoming, unreleased music, you can use Spotify for Artists to pitch a song to our playlist editors. Learn more about pitching music

• Are pseudonyms used in functional music?

  Production musicians, bands, and individual artists have used pseudonyms for decades. Artists often want to separate commercial work from personal projects. Naming decisions are those of the musicians and production companies; Spotify then displays the provided metadata.

• Does Spotify pay a different royalty rate for functional music?

  For decades, background or production music and genres have tended to command lower royalty rates than music from traditional genres. And this can be the case on Spotify, too.

  For instance, in 2024, we shared that we’ve been working with licensors to value noise recordings at a fraction of the value of music streams.

• Does Spotify use AI to create music?

  No. Music on Spotify, including functional music, is created, owned, and uploaded by licensed third parties. Spotify does not create music — with AI or without it.