Thanks for clarifying, I should look into it more but it's sometimes difficult to follow these legal things.

I know it's not unusual, that's my basic question. I can't imagine anyone reading the patent excerpt in that article and going "oh yeah, Spotify definitely ripped that off." Why are these vague and general patents getting approved?

You should really listen to last week's This American Life, available on podcast.

You'd be horrified to learn that not only are overbroad patents being awarded to people, but also regularly being awarded to multiple people/business entities. Multiple groups holding patents for the same things.