Industry & Business

Founder of the digital music service Spotify, Daniel Ek, claims his firm to have saved the music industry from constant decline during the download era.

Mr Ek’s service has been criticised for not being lucrative enough for artists even though it is now nearing 30 million paid subscribers.

The streaming giant CEO was responding to a question on Quora about artists’ claims that Spotify and other similar services were harmful to the music industry.

“Many people don’t realize that the music industry was in decline throughout all the download years (with a one year exception in which it was basically flat). Now, finally, after years and years of decline, music is growing again, streaming is behind the growth in music, and Spotify is behind the growth in streaming,” Mr Ek said.

He went on to say that the industry is changing from an ‘ownership’ model to an access model, not dissimilar to the changes occurring in the car, publishing and news industries.

Mr Ek said that change in any industry can be ‘challenging’ and insists that Spotify ‘gets it’ when it comes to peoples’ objection to the move to streaming services.

“Look, we pay the great majority of our revenue back to the music industry. And as we grow, that revenue is really making a difference.

“So ultimately, we think the best measure of our contribution to the industry will be results – results that will give thousands and thousands of artists, songwriters, producers and so on the chance to do what they love, and their fans love, while being paid fairly for doing it,” Mr Ek said.

The Spotify chief was speaking as his firm nears almost 30 million paying subscribers.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the streaming giant has gained a substantial amount of paying users in the opening month and a half of 2016.

The paper cites people familiar with the matter who believe that the firm will hit the 30 million mark in the next three months.