Daniel Ek Quotes

I think overall, and this isn't specific to Spotify or any streaming service or any label... when you consider the overall value chain of the music industry and how important the songwriter is to the business - I think there needs to be another look at the value chain.

It's always boiled down to the quality of your music and the quality of your deal with whoever's distributing your music: There are artists who sold a lot of records and didn't make money because of their deal, and artists who didn't sell nearly as much who made a great living because they own their masters.

Now we know that, the way contracts are set up, it's not really made for artists to get rich from selling records - that's the company's one shot to make money.

If you earned money listening to music, I'd be a millionaire.

It's a small percentile of people who see one dime out of the music business.

I have always abhorred the business end of music.

One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, 'Wait - you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it?'

I have never made a cent off a record in my life. I have never recouped enough, and I never sold enough. When people see you have a song on MTV, they think you are doing well - but you know, the way the traditional label deal was set up, it is really hard for an artist, unless they sold a lot, to see anything.

I have never made a cent off a record in my life. I have never recouped enough, and I never sold enough.

I'm delighted about the track's success in the sports world, but the frustrating thing is, I don't think I got rich on it. The labels and publishers did very cheap deals on our songs.

I got me a hit record and I ain't never made a cent from it.

Everyone has learned how to monetize music except the music industry.

Music is everywhere - you consume it every day, everywhere you go. The content creator should be compensated. It's only fair.

Selling music doesn't make that much money.

I'm really interested in the record industry and the artists and the problems they're having.

There's no money in music. I know that. I think the whole world should know that.

The more people are listening to music and experiencing it, the more value for both the music companies and the artist, especially when their financial model is built around that. With the music industry, everybody is starting to understand that doesn't begin with a piece of music.

What people don't realize is that the initial sales of an album isn't where the bulk of your returns come from. It happens over time, sitting in the catalog, picking up commercials, getting included on packages here and there - there's years and years of pipeline money that goes on. That's where real money comes from - building that body of work.

When you go pick out my album, the money actually comes to me and my company directly.

You see the music videos and the bling and the cars, but all of that goes home at the end of the shoot. They make nothing because there's less and less money in the music industry.

A song is essentially an 'asset' after its creation and release because it can be traded, sold or rented. This makes it the backbone of earnings in the 'music ecosystem.'

I'm the only artist who got paid by Puff, like really, really, paid.

The value of streaming platforms is estimated at a few billion dollars, and creators can only afford a pizza without pepperoni at the end of the year with the revenues. Without musicians, all those platforms wouldn't exist, so we urgently need an appropriate and sustainable business model for musicians for the 21st century.

Playing out in a band all the time at least you made money. Even if you have a hit song, it takes about two years to pay.

You gotta' sell a million records before you talk about getting paid at a major [label].