“I started this company to help the music industry, not get vilified by them,” Spotify founder Daniel Ek tells Billboard in its latest cover story. He's referring to the many outspoken critics of Spotify, including Taylor Swift.
Seven months after Swift pulled her catalog from the streaming giant, Ek points to what he believes is responsible for her recent success: “Her YouTube streams went through the roof. What that tells me is the audience that was listening to Taylor Swift on Spotify went on YouTube to do it instead."
Ek also addresses Apple, which on Monday will announce its forthcoming subscription streaming plan to compete with Spotify.
“Apple will probably be pretty successful, but it doesn’t have to be at the expense of Spotify," Ek says. "If we think of this as an opportunity instead of trying to maximize the piece of pie we have today, the music industry will be many, many times bigger, and there won’t be any arguments about how many percent we pay. When Apple starts doing streaming, streaming will start growing even faster.”
