Spotify CEO: Taylor Swift made us realise we need to do better

This year’s Taylor Swift fiasco might’ve been a thorn in the heel for Spotify, but it’s also taught the streaming service a valuable lesson.

Daniel Ek is CEO of Spotify, and he says Taylor Swift pulling her music from the service has kick-started a strategy re-think at the company.

“What it has highlighted for us is we need to do a better job explaining to artists how streaming benefits them,” Ek revealed, speaking to Billboard magazine.

“The point that’s been lost is that Spotify’s the fastest-growing revenue source the industry has.”

He added: “There are many artists to whom, through the labels, we’re paying out millions a year already. Those cheque sizes will just keep increasing.”

Last month Taylor Swift opted to remove her entire back catalogue of music from Spotify because she realised ‘her worth.’

The country pop singer had already spoken out earlier this year, lambasting music streamed for free as devaluing the industry.

Swift initially requested that Spotify only make her music available to the 12.5 million paying subscribers, not the 37.5 million free users, but the firm declined.

Ek confirmed that this policy isn’t changing, at least in the short term: “There are a lot of other places where you can access that music for free, so our view is the only thing that happens by not being in the free service is that the consumer then has to go to another service to get the song, and they will.”

“If they stay on the free service there’s a lot more likelihood that the consumer ends up becoming a paying subscriber, thereby generating more revenue,” Ek continued, adding: “And then on top of that we’re paying a considerable amount every single time someone does play a song, whether it’s on the free tier or the paid tier.”

The CEO ended with: “It’s something that we keep on discussing internally but right now our stance is the same as it has been before.”

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