Spotify boss Daniel Ek is a man who’s apparently got used to the good times. For many years now, Spotify’s share price has kept going up, the major labels have been happy with what they’re getting and subscriber numbers have continued to rise. For a while, it seemed like he could do no wrong – except to the artists whose music is on the site, of course.
How different things look today. The share price at Spotify has fallen some 25% since the start of the year – and investors are starting to worry. The company has been the subject of endless bad news stories for the past week – and whilst the press have been setting the agenda, Spotify have watched on and done absolutely nothing.
The leadership of the company have been utterly woeful throughout this period – and I personally think shareholders should be asking serious questions about the people at the top of Spotify. But over the past 24 hours, their much-delayed fightback has finally begun.
It started with Joe Rogan’s podcasts which discuss Covid-19 being brandished with advisory warnings. Then it led to a statement from Rogan himself showing an unusual humility – which leads the cynic in me to think he was effectively being held at gunpoint when he wrote it.
And then the boss himself magically appears, with a statement full of word salad and short on answers. One question that certainly wasn’t answered was why this company – which is all about people being able to listen to their favourite songs right here and right now – took at least five days to respond to the controversy.
But it’s the same story with all the internet giants. Their arrogance and belief they’re too big to fail means they ignore things until it’s too late not to. The social media platforms have all fallen foul of this – now the streamers have started to as well…