Home / AI & Machine Learning

Photo of software, battery, video game
Image: Wikipedia
AI & Machine Learning

Spotify Develops Random Access Parquet to Enhance Data Retrieval

WireByte Staff · August 1, 2026

Spotify has developed Random Access Parquet (RAP) to improve data retrieval from its vast data lake. RAP reduces query engine overhead, enabling fast point queries by key over large datasets. This innovation benefits online services and AI Agents, enhancing user experiences and AI decision-making. The technology is expected to improve data access speeds by several orders of magnitude.

Key points

  • Spotify has developed Random Access Parquet (RAP) to accelerate data retrieval from its data lake.
  • RAP reduces query engine overhead, enabling fast point queries by key over large datasets.
  • The technology benefits online services and AI Agents, enhancing user experiences and AI decision-making.
  • Spotify's data lake stores exabytes of data, with petabytes in Bigtable for online use-cases.
  • RAP is expected to improve data access speeds by several orders of magnitude.

Spotify, a leading music streaming service, has developed Random Access Parquet (RAP) to enhance data retrieval from its vast data lake. The technology addresses the growing need for fast data access speeds in online services and AI Agents.

RAP bridges the gap between storage and query engines, reducing the overhead of distributed SQL engines like Trino and BigQuery. This enables fast point queries by key over large datasets, improving data access speeds by several orders of magnitude.

Spotify's data lake stores exabytes of data, with petabytes in Bigtable for online use-cases. The company's move to RAP is expected to benefit its online services and AI Agents, enhancing user experiences and AI decision-making.

The development of RAP is a significant step towards improving data access speeds in the tech industry. As data lakes continue to grow in size and complexity, innovations like RAP will play a crucial role in enabling fast and efficient data retrieval.

Sources

WireByte Staff — Editorial Team

The WireByte editorial team synthesises technology news from multiple primary sources, verifies the facts, and links every source. Articles are produced with AI assistance and reviewed under our editorial policy.