Word reaches me in my emails of a story which I’ve had to sit on for a little while. I’m not keen on this practice – not least because it means someone else could get hold of it in the meantime – but it seemed so crazy that I wanted to verify its accuracy first.

So here it is. A few weeks ago, an informal meeting took place at one of the major labels in London. The topic of discussion soon turned to the subject of how the label would respond to the British government’s report on streaming. And the consensus around the table appeared to be by doing as little as physically possible.

But that isn’t the worst part. One person at the table said he found it odd that Spotify didn’t invest back into the music industry, saying the likes of Netflix did. This is a reference to the fact Netflix and other streaming companies in the TV world produce their own content, whereas music streaming sites don’t. They’re effectively glorified receptacles.

And one executive present at the meeting responded saying “And thank f**k they don’t. That’s our job. The moment that f***ing slaphead [a naughty reference to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek] starts doing that is the day we’re out. We’d withdraw our entire catalogue if that ever happens – they’d be f***ing nothing without us.”.

The worst bit of all this? The executive in question is essentially correct. If Spotify Records was to ever become a thing, Spotify could make even more money but at the expense of majors who got them to where they are today…