Is Daniel Ek from Spotify the visionary we need?

Daniel Ek is the CEO of Spotify, which is a widely popular and arguably the most engaged-in streaming platform in the world, has come out overnight with a statement saying;

“Working Musicians can no longer release music only once every three to four years to survive”. (Source: Fader Article)

With no surprise… A large majority of the music industry (mostly people that are not successful in their craft) have lost their sh#t on social media about it but what I don’t understand… Is why?

Artists around the world are claiming he has no business giving advice to musicians and artists as he hasn’t ever released any of his own music on the platform OR that he isn’t currently an active artist in the industry OR that his statement is only to drive more music to his platform because it will help the company grow further and benefit financially…

All of the above is true… Daniel Ek is a businessman and a very good one at that. He HAS build arguably the biggest streaming service in the world and has developed such a thing by knowing what is going on in the music industry and focused on promoting everyone else’s music for a living…

That’s just it though… EVERYONE ELSE’S MUSIC…

His focus is on YOU SUCCEEDING because if you don’t… He doesn’t…

This is the problem with the industry at the moment… Artists are so stuck in the “good ole’ days” and don’t realise a golden goose when you see it. Then take to public mediums and scream bullshit because it is the social norm these days…

I mean I understand the payment per stream is low but that isn’t the thing I am talking about here… Spotify is a promotional tool, not a be-all-end-all for the monetisation plan of your art! If you want to make more money per purchase, maybe you should consider another service? Like Atomic? 😉

Personally… If the CEO of a business who’s whole plan for survival is built on tracking the trends and process of artists on a worldwide scale (and also happens to be a stupidly successful multi-millionaire) is giving me advice on how to benefit better financially… Im going to listen…

I’m probably going to NOT sook on social media and do my research with this golden nugget of information…

Then I’m probably going to jump online and check out the masses of many other popular artists and corporations saying the EXACT SAME THING!

But that is just it… Music ISN’T like it used to be… 

You can’t release one great song and have it take your career on a horse back ride through scrooges magical vault (Daryl…..)… Back in the “Good ole’ days”, you could release a song and see it sit in the charts and on radio rotation regularly and people would listen, appreciate and purchase it… TV would pick it up and people would purchase it more because they were the major platforms and ultimately the only platforms you could share on.

These days, there is 100 times more music coming out and on so many platforms, no-one can keep up. The long and short of it, you seem to need to have your works heard 7 or more times to take it from “that’s nice” to “shut the f&ck up and take my hard earned money”.

The music industry is MUCH more competitive these days. You can’t just do what you saw in some movie and write “one great song”… Release product, get return. If you can’t keep up with the market, you won’t make money and you WILL ultimately fail in your attempt to monetize your music.

This is what Daniel Ek is telling you and it is F&%king good advice! Why the hell would you lynch the person helping you out here?

Make more product, get it out, promote on all platforms and in unique ways and watch your career grow AND last… You can’t make music your life if you can’t make bank from it… Once you see some success, then you can release that crafty album you spent 20 years writing and refining with your best friend that you are secretly in love with and sing about cryptically… Until then… Get writing, get releasing, flood the market with your awesome art.

Adapt or Die… It just doesn’t work like the old days anymore peeps… Get your head out of the script and create your own!

Shade out…