Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sparked an online backlash after a social media post in which he said the cost of creating “content” is “close to zero”.
The boss of the streaming giant said in a post on X: "Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content. This has sparked my curiosity about the concept of long shelf life versus short shelf life.
"While much of what we see and hear quickly becomes obsolete, there are timeless ideas or even pieces of music that can remain relevant for decades or even centuries.
“Also, what are we creating now that will still be valued and discussed hundreds or thousands of years from today?”
Music fans and musicians were quick to call Ek out, with one user, composer Tim Prebble, saying: “Music will still be valued in a hundred years. Spotify won’t. It will only be remembered as a bad example of a parasitic tool for extracting value from other peoples music. (or “content” as some grifters like to call it).”
Musicians weighed in too, with Primal Scream bassist Simone Marie Butler saying: “Fuck off you out of touch billionaire.”
From a certain angle even that perspective is a little bit unfair because you can invest a massive amount of your very valuable time into a project that only technically has a zero dollar production cost on paper.
If you chose to produce a podcast instead of working towards a promotion at your job, your opportunity cost could be quite high even though it’s not reflected anywhere. Nowhere besides the high quality of your show.
Absolutely, I’ve got music on Spotify and well aware of the costs of mixing and mastering, as well as the sacrifice you make in terms of playing poorly paid gigs, and the opportunity cost just by creating music.
The Spotify CEOs take is so far out when you consider that if just super budget content was on the platform, people wouldn’t use it or at least wouldn’t pay for it.
Good on you for putting goodness out in the world!
Thank you!