Spotify has grown to become a household name amongst music lovers from around the globe. This Swedish-born music streaming service got its start in September 2008 and has since grown to amass more than 100 million active users and about half a billion registered users.

In Asia, Spotify is available through a host of countries, Malaysia included. PC.com sits down with Sunita Kaur, the Managing Director of Spotify Asia, to pick her brain on how Spotify Malaysia is doing, following its third anniversary celebrations.

PC.com: Tell us about Spotify and how does Malaysia fit into its business strategy?

Sunita Kaur: Spotify offer artists the opportunity to connect with a passionate global audience. Especially in a world where music is still dominated by piracy, we allow artists to be heard and paid. We also provide artists with access to data that illustrates how their music is being heard around the world.

Malaysia is definitely a key market for us. What makes the country an exciting market to be in is the diversity. Malaysia is truly a melting pot of different cultures and languages, and this means that our users’ preferences differ from market to market as well.

PC.com: In terms of services, are there a lot of differences between Spotify Malaysia and Spotify globally?

Sunita: We want users to feel one with the music. With that in mind, there is not much difference between the overall experience if you are based here in Malaysia or in the US.

Music is a very personal experience. We want everyone who is on Spotify to have a personalised moment. We engage with our music fans through content that is relevant to local pop culture, moods and lifestyle moments. We leverage our understanding of users’ listening habits and provide insights into cultural trends and nuances that resonate with local audiences. From Discover Weekly to collaborative playlists to specific playlist moments, we have it for all to enjoy.

The differences that we do have in place for users here in Malaysia are the localised music library and the use of the local language. With that in mind, Spotify is available in English or in Malay, with a very broad and deep catalogue of local music.

Before launching here three years ago, we took it upon ourselves to ensure that we had every genre of music for our Malaysian listeners. There is nothing better than being able to access to music from P. Ramlee to Dato Siti Nurhaliza to Bunkface. In regards to the language, users can decide if they would want to use the app in English or in Malay. These differences in place are aimed to ensure that users are able to maximise their Spotify experience.

PC.com: What are some of the challenges faced by Spotify Malaysia? Is piracy still a huge hurdle?

Sunita: Spotify is a fully licensed and legal service, so to launch in a market, we have to have all the appropriate agreements in place with rights holders; labels and collecting societies. We believe that if you’re going to roll out a music service to music fans who demand excellence, you want to be sure everything is perfectly in place for launch. That is exactly what we did three years ago.

In regards to piracy, that is our biggest challenge or competitor here at Spotify. There is still much to do to ensure that music is being streamed or downloaded legally. We want to make a dent and to eventually stop piracy.

As part of the process, we are hoping to educate the public (users & non users) on the importance of using legal streaming services such as Spotify. We want to ensure that everyone gets to enjoy music freely and legally, but at the same time we want the artists and labels be taken care of too.

PC.com: How has Spotify faired in Malaysia since its launch here?

Sunita: The love and support we have gotten so far has totally surpassed any expectations we had when we launched Spotify here three years ago. The love Malaysians have for music is remarkable.  Spotify offers them the best features and content – both international and local – that makes us so popular with music fans here.

Since launch, Malaysian users have spent a whopping 8.3 billion minutes streaming on Spotify, with users having grown by 71% year-on-year. Spotify is now an integral part of the lives of many Malaysians, with many spending on average 148 minutes a day streaming music from the platform.

As part of our commitment to the users in Malaysia, we have launched our Browse update and have a dedicated music editor that works on curating playlists just for our Malaysian listeners.

Our in-house music editor looks into the current trends, top hits and social updates, while coming up with playlists that would resonate with local users. He takes the various feedbacks into account by curating a diverse selection of local playlists for an enhanced music experience that not only reflects each market’s unique music landscape, but also resonates with every local music fan’s lifestyle moment.

PC.com: With Spotify Malaysia celebrating its third anniversary, what are your growth plans for the country and the region?

Sunita: We definitely want to grow further and wider in Malaysia. We believe that Malaysia is a key market to be in. Now that we are here, we want to continue innovating and pushing locally relevant content to our Malaysian fans.

Asia is a huge part of Spotify’s present and future plans. While our long-term goal is to be available in every Asian market, we carefully consider each country on a case-by-case basis and will only consider launch when the time is right. Having said that, we are currently focused on establishing our presence in Indonesia, as that is our latest addition to the Spotify family in Asia.

PC.com: On a more personal note, tell us more about yourself and your role in Spotify Asia.

Sunita: To start with a little about my background, I was in the publishing business for 20 years and made the leap from print to digital back in 2005. Not only was it a leap into a different industry, but also the beginning of my love affair with start- ups.

As the Managing Director of Asia for Spotify, I work across all functional teams and have the overall responsibility of applicable market budgets, goals and revenue. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of launching Spotify across Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The journey never stops being interesting.

PC.com: We noticed you were also with Facebook for two years, is there a difference between working for Facebook and Spotify?

Sunita: Here at Spotify I am surrounded by people who make me better at what I do, which makes coming to the office really exciting.  We are constantly pushing ourselves to build a strong and relevant product in a competitive environment; at the same time, we have a lot of fun doing that.

At Spotify, organisational thinking permeates the whole organisation; it’s not just aspirational or just a HR-initiative. The feeling of finding better ways to work is omnipresent at Spotify.  We never shoot down an idea unless we have explored it fully and understood if it is going to work; and this is something that works across all departments, from marketing to sales to engineering. Failure is an option; it’s the best way to learn.

I had the privilege to work at Facebook and now with Spotify, two absolutely amazing companies. I would not say there are differences or similarities, you have to make the experience count; and both companies have taught me about the rewards from hard work, the importance of being transparent with your teams and how much fun it is to be a disruptor.