Daniel Ek: Last News

Spotify shares, which have been on a tear since last year, are up 10% premarket on a strong fourth quarter that saw users and subscribers grow and the global music giant post a full-year profit for the first time since it launched in 2008.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Warner Music Group and Spotify have announced a new, multi-year agreement, covering both recorded music and music publishing, that effectively ends the companies’ disputes over the streaming giant’s “bundling” option, which pays rights-holders less in royalties by offering audiobooks and music together for a reduced subscription fee. Universal Music struck a similar deal with Spotify just days ago.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify hit all the right notes in reporting Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings, with the audio streamer turning in its first annual net profit since it was founded in 2006. Shares of Spotify surged more than 10% on the solid earnings report in early trading Tuesday.

artificial intelligence (AI) in the creation of music, and said that it may lead to some “interesting” but “soulless” tracks.The Facebook creator opened up about the highly divisive topic during a new appearance on the Track Star show. As part of the interview segment, he took part in a quiz, where he had to identify songs within just seconds of hearing them.During the interview, he shared his love for a range of different artists, including Olivia Rodrigo – who he said he “loves” and introduced his daughters to – and Daft Punk, who he named as one of the main artists he was listening to when creating the coding for Facebook back in 2004.About halfway through, Zuckerberg correctly identified a song by American punk trio Green Day, before the host asked him if he believes a band – with the help of AI – could ever be “as good as” Billie Joe Armstrong and co.“AI will probably be able to produce technically interesting music,” he responded.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify cranked up the volume with another strong quarter, packing on 6 million paying subscribers globally in Q3 and issuing an upbeat forecast for the year-end quarter — saying it’s on track to hit profitability for full-year 2024. The audio streaming giant met or exceeded its previous Q3 forecasts on financial and subscriber metrics. For the quarter, the company reported €4.0 billion in revenue, up 19%, and record net income of €300 million, up more than fourfold from €65 million a year earlier.

Shares of giant music streamer Spotify have jumped 13% in pre-market trading as the company grew premium, subscribers, revenue and profit for the second quarter ended in June.

Joe Rogan will be telling “jokes, folks, just jokes” in his first stand-up special in six years.

Deadmau5 has spoken out against Spotify following comments made by the streaming platform’s CEO Daniel Ek last month about the cost of “creating content”.In late May, Ek – who also co-founded Spotify – made comments implying that it is easier and more affordable than ever to create “content” thanks to modern technology. “Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content.

Spotify will reportedly finally release a high-fidelity audio tier for its subscribers.According to a report from Bloomberg, the streaming platform is set to charge $5 more per month for hi-fi audio. The new price will be added on top of existing premium plans.Additionally, the new tier will reportedly offer subscribers “new tools for creating playlists and managing their song libraries.”Though the official release date is unknown, an insider told Bloomberg it is expected to drop “later this year”.Competing platforms like Apple Music and Amazon Music already have lossless audio integrated into their plans at no extra cost.The family plan will see a rise of $3 at 19.99 per month while Spotify’s student plan will remain at the discounted price of $5.99 a month.

Spotify have announced that it will be raising the price of its monthly premium plan.Last summer, the streaming platform hiked its subscription prices for the first time ever in the 10 years since the streaming service launched. At the time, the premium plan went up to £10.99 per month, up from the previous price of £9.99 monthly in the UK.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, following his claims that “content” costs “close to zero” to make.The comments from the CEO of the streaming giant were shared last week (May 29), and saw Ek take to X/Twitter to imply that it is easier and more affordable than ever to create “content” thanks to modern technology.“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,” he wrote.“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,” he added, before questioning: “What are we creating now that will still be valued and discussed hundreds or thousands of years from today?”Needless to say, the comments were quick to spark a response from across the online community, with countless music lovers and musicians coming forward to criticise the CEO as being “out of touch”.Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content.

Spotify’s CEO, after he claimed that “the cost of creating content” in today’s world is “close to zero”.Daniel Ek, the CEO of the streaming giant, sparked backlash following the comments he made yesterday (May 29) – implying that it is easier and more affordable than ever to create “content” thanks to modern technology.Writing on X/Twitter, he shared an update which read: “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.”He continued: 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.

Spotify has announced record profits of over €1billion (£860m), following staff being laid off, subscription prices rising and costs being cut across the board.The growth of the company comes as streaming continues to dominate the music industry, and the platform has gone on to offer its subscribers access to podcasts and audiobooks too.Currently, the Swedish company has around 615million users across the globe, and has invested a huge amount of money in growing the brand since its initial launch back in 2006. However, reports of the profit come following a year of the brand cutting costs and laying off staff.Late last year, Spotify announced that it was cutting down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify reeled in fewer new users overall than it expected in the first quarter of 2024, but the audio-streaming giant touted “record strength” in profitability. Total monthly active users (free and paid) grew 19% year over year to 615 million, a gain of 13 million from the previous quarter — which missed its guidance by 3 million. Spotify said “moderated marketing activity” led to “more normalized growth” following 2023’s record performance (when it added 26 million new MAUs in Q1).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify announced the appointment of Christian Luiga, a senior executive at European defense and security company Saab AB, as its next CFO. Luiga is expected to start in the third quarter of 2024. Ben Kung, Spotify’s VP of financial planning and analysis, will serve as interim CFO until Luiga’s start date.

Spotify has announced that it has entered into a partnership with the live events platform Bandsintown.Founded in 2007, Bandsintown is a website and app that allows users to find information about tours and concerts that are in their area, with artists having the ability to control their own listings.Now, Spotify has confirmed that Bandsintown listings will be directly integrated onto their platform. “Bandsintown is on a mission to help artists get discovered and sell out shows,” said Fabrice Sergent, co-founder of Bandsintown.

Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider has hit out at Spotify, suggesting CEO Daniel Ek “should be taken out and shot” for unfairly compensating artists.The streaming platform has frequently come under fire for the low rates at which it pays artists, which has contributed to many artists struggling to make enough money directly from their music. Recently, Spotify controversially changed its royalty streaming threshold of 1000 plays before songs are able to generate royalties.According to Spotify data, there are around 100million songs on the service, yet only around 37.5million meet the new requirements to generate revenue.Snyder’s criticism for the platform and its CEO, who he didn’t refer to by name, came during an interview with the YouTube podcast The Jeremy White Show.“That guy from Spotify, I wanna tell you, he should be taken out and shot,” Snider said (via Consequence of Sound), presumably referring to Ek.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify said chief financial officer Paul Vogel will leave the company next year and that it has launched a search to find a replacement. Vogel’s last day at Spotify will be March 31, 2024.

Spotify said chief financial officer Paul Vogel will be leaving at the end of March. The news comes several days after the music streamer announced about 1,500 layoffs, some 17% of its workforce.

Tidal has laid off 40 members of staff across multiple departments, amounting to 10 per cent of its total staff.The music streaming service is owned by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s company Block, which has been making layoffs across its many branches, which also include Square and Cash App.As reported by Bloomberg, the layoffs include Jeff Benjamin, a former member of Tidal’s editorial team, along with other members of the editorial staff.In a statement from the company, they said: “As part of Block and its recent announcement to cap the number of employees at the company to focus on business growth, TIDAL has carefully considered how to right-size our team to ensure we are able to continue to build and invest in critical areas of the business.”“We do not take these decisions lightly, and we are sincerely grateful for the contributions of our impacted teammates.”Earlier this week, Spotify also announced that they were cutting down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs. The streaming platform had previously laid off 6 per cent of its staff earlier in the year.Spotify chief executing Daniel Ek said that the recent decision was made as economic growth had “slowed dramatically”.

Spotify has announced it is cutting 17% of its staff, with around 1800 jobs expected to be lost in the process. Chief executive Daniel Ek broke the news on Monday, saying in a public memo that the "difficult" decision was made in reponse to economic growth slowing "dramatically." Ek said "substantial action to rightsize our costs" was required in order for the company to reach its financial targets.