Daniel Ek convinced labels and artists to stream their songs on Spotify, reviving the flatlining music industry. Now, after amassing a $4.4 billion fortune, he’s opening his superstreamer to storytelling, live talk and a new breed of audio creators in a bid to own the world’s digital eardrums.
A decade ago, Daniel Ek convinced labels and artists to stream their songs on Spotify, reviving the flatlining music industry. Now, after amassing a $4.4 billion fortune, he’s moving past pop stars, opening his superstreamer to storytelling, live talk and a new breed of audio creators in a bid to own the world’s digital eardrums.and 71 stories above Wall Street at 4 World Trade Center, Daniel Ek is strolling along the polished concrete floors of Spotify’s headquarters.
“Spotify was the force that transitioned hundreds of millions of users from piracy to paying customers,” says Sean Parker, who, as cofounder of Napster, was considered the Blackbeard of the music business before becoming Facebook’s first president and a Spotify investor. “It’s no exaggeration to say that Daniel saved the music industry.”
He’s shaping Spotify into the go-to destination for all digital sound: not just music but news, storytelling, live talk, audiobooks and education. He wants to provide the tools to empower audio creators to dream up entirely new categories with fresh soundscapes. All of which will be run through Spotify’s AI-powered algorithms to deliver an audio stream personalized to each listener. What TikTok, YouTube and Instagram have done for photos and video, Ek wants to do for sound.
The lawyers proved tougher. Years of rampant internet piracy had left record labels paranoid about giving up rights, especially to a free, ad-based service. After Spotify debuted in Europe, Ek negotiated for more than three years to get the rights he needed to launch in the U.S. “Daniel could have entered America much sooner by signing a bad deal that would have destroyed the company,” Parker says. “He had the iron will to resist labels and artists trying to take advantage of the company.
Although Spotify has become music’s new Mecca, its stock has sputtered. Over the last 12 months, shares are up 4%—vastly underperforming the S&P 500 and Nasdaq’s more than 30% gains. Investors hate its CD-thin margins and the leverage the major labels hold over it. Because Spotify doesn’t own the music it streams, as much as 70% of every revenue dollar goes to rights holders . Spotify has never swung an annual profit. Last year its losses tripled to $713 million. “I focus on cash flow.
In 2021, Spotify generated buzz by signing a widely reported $60 million licensing deal for Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy and $100 million for The Joe Rogan Experience—the latter podcasting’s most popular, and polarizing, show. Next came partnerships with A-listers including Barack and Michelle Obama, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Kim Kardashian and filmmaker Ava DuVernay. “It was a multi-tiered strategy,” Ostroff says.
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