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.”
I mean, sure… I can pump out music all day every day and it cost me nothing to make.
It’s not gonna be good music though. It’s literally just going to be random notes and loops with no lyrics or actual instruments being recorded, strung together in a way that doesn’t cause your ears to bleed. Hopefully.
But hey, if that’s what Ek wants, he should make me an offer. 🤷🏻♂️
Not even. You still need to afford to eat, a place to sleep, the music has to be made, recorded and served to people on something, a laptop or tablet at least which are not zero cost. You have to pay for the electricity and internet connection. Nothing has a cost of zero, especially nothing done by a human being. It’s just CEOs are used to discounting other people’s unpaid labor from their costs, so they think that labor is free and they’re entitled to it.