Spotify CEO says artists will make “decent living” from streaming

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has claimed artists’ reservations about streaming royalties will be mollified in “just a few years.”

Speaking to CNN Tech Correspondent Laurie Segall, Ek said: “[…] we just last week had an artist announcement where we basically said if there would be 40 million subscribers paying for a service like Spotify, it would be more than anything else in the entire music industry, including iTunes.

“And we’re not too far away from that number, which is the interesting thing. So, I’m absolutely sure that artists will make a decent living, and actually the entire music industry will be larger than it’s ever been, in the next few years.”

Ek admitted one of Spotify’s biggest barriers was explaining to artists what its royalty model is; this confusion lead to the creation of its Spotify Artists website, which explains how it pays the artists it streams.

“We just recently changed our strategy […] we decided to create this artist website where we just put all the facts on the table, we put it right out there, and that was huge, the overwhelming response has been very, very positive from the artist community about this being exactly what they wanted.”

Ek also said the majority (70%) of royalties in Spotify’s home of origin Sweden come from the service, including physical.

“The majority of money that musicians make today in Sweden are because of streaming […] I’m absolutely sure that streaming will be the dominant way that artists will get paid in the future.”

Next week, Spotify’s Director of Economics Will Page will hold a mini-keynote at BIGSOUND where he’ll unveil the competitor’s consumer data and analytics. The consumer results will show how streaming services have impacted illegal downloading, how streaming has enabled Australian music to cross borders and how access to Spotify’s analytics can affect Australia’s live industry.