Inside the Mind of a Visionary
Building a 140 million-user strong music streaming platform isn't an overnight job. It all started with a vision for a free, legal streaming service that would put the world's music at listener's fingertips.
When Spotify first entered the music landscape, trust within the industry was at an all-time low, but founder and CEO Daniel Ek envisioned a future where artists and fans could believe in each other once again.
"I had this idea of the kind of product I wanted to see in the world: What if we can build something that makes it feel like you had all the world’s music on your hard drive? If we can create that feeling, we’ll have built something much better than piracy.”
This was the start to a decade-long journey.
Play, Pause, Repeat
But how do you build something better than free? The answer is: Speed. If Daniel could find a way to win the attention of consumers in the first milliseconds of them clicking on a song, he would win the race.
But to cement a long-term relationship with users, speed was not enough. And for hard-core music fans and casual listeners alike, this meant helping them discover and share music. By analyzing massive amounts of data, and by keeping human curation at its core, Spotify created an approach to playlists that users grew to trust.
The next hurdle was setting a price. Instead of charging Premium fees, Spotify used a great free product as a shortcut to trust.
Finally, Daniel would have to win the support of the music industry.
Soundtrack to Your Life
How did record labels come to invest in Spotify?
In the midst of Sweden's suffering music industry, Daniel promised one years' worth of revenue in the market if they enable his business model. He’d take a painful short term loss in exchange for the possibility of a long term win.
Daniel and his team have proven music aficionados wrong with their computer curated playlists which capture the music interests of each and every listener. With the curation and customization of music and audio, listeners get more out of their Spotify experience.
Spotify creates the soundtrack to your life.