Musicians criticize Spotify CEO

Musicians were offended by Daniel Ek’s words about their work. The Spotify CEO claimed that it’s not enough to churn out albums every 3-4 years and consider the job done.

In an interview that was published on July 30, Ek said that recording music every 3-4 years is not enough. 

As soon as his comments went public, many artists openly criticized the Spotify CEO. They made it clear that music is not something that can be forced, and the amount of work they do is immense. 

The billionaire Daniel Ek thinks that music is a product that should be released regularly. Mike Mills answered concisely: “Go fuck yourself.” One of the fans suggested boycotting Spotify if Daniel decides he might fuck around and continue to underestimate artists’ work.

Nadine Shah and Jack Garratt also commented on the situation. On Twitter, Nadine spoke out about changes that need to be introduced. She said that it is tiring to kiss the arses of companies that continue to exploit musicians. The woman called on the whole music community to stand for the changes, including all the fans. 

In response to Nadine Shah’s tweet, Jack Garratt added that too many companies in the music industry do not respect the artists’ mental health. And when they have to take some time off to fix themselves, the companies start getting defensive. “It is so broken,” says Garratt.  

He talked some more about the injustice and inconsistency of Ek’s words. The artist is outraged by the companies’ requirements to work to exhaustion and need to adjust to their business model.

He also disagreed with Ek’s saying that “continuous engagement with fans” is a successful tactic. He believes that the frequency of releasing music does not correlate with streaming numbers. The amount of followers is not translated to the views and streams. The artist says that his work differs from the “influencers.” The main task of a musician is music creation, writing, recording, and touring. 

Zola Jesus joined the discussion and added some words about Daniel Ek’s business strategy. In her opinion, it is not an effective way of good music production. The artist explained that it is clear that the billionaire is not familiar with music creation and has never tried it. Thus, he does not see the difference between art and product. She added: “The potential for culture growth will suffer because of it.”

Neko Case supported Zola.

There were many more responses to Daniel Ek’s words. Such musicians as Sebastian Bach, Dee Snider, and many others did not stay away. 

In the interview, Daniel Ek assured that Spotify pays musicians enough to live on. In reality, Spotify keeps stopping the artists from making money from their art.

Back in April, PRS director Tom Gray shared some data collected by The Trichordist. It showed that musicians do not get that much from their streaming platforms. To earn minimum wage as for the UK on Spotify, a song must get 3114 plays.

The conclusion is: Daniel Ek seems to think all that artists do in between recording albums is party, smoke joints, and fuck a fan or two every weekend. While in reality, they often need to juggle art with their daily jobs because Spotify does not pay enough. Would boycotting Ek’s business make it better for them or even worse? What do you think?