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Having spent many successful years at AOL, Bloomberg and Sony Music Entertainment, Mark Uttley certainly had the perfect CV for his role as vice-president, consumer insights, at music streaming service Spotify – which boasts more than 75 million active users, 20 million of whom subscribe to its paid-for service.

“Consumer insights clarify who the audience is and my team is focused on understanding trends that help us grow, ” says Uttley, who credits his boss – chief marketing officer Seth Farbman, previously at Gap – with developing a “world-class” marketing function at the company.

“We are now more brand- and consumer-led, ” he explains, while admitting that marketing “only began in earnest” at Spotify after Farbman’s arrival last year.

As his team grows – it will almost triple in size this year, to around 27 – the insights function is maturing, and Uttley believes “it will be world-class once we have hired the team we are ...