When you've just turned 30, are worth $300 million and are the co-founder of the biggest thing to happen to music since Apple's iTunes, well, you can afford to splurge.
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify music-subscription service, has a passion for collecting guitars. He has 42 of them back home in Sweden (his favorite: a rare 1959 Fender Stratocaster), and he says he never travels without one.
In an interview at the tony Petit Ermitage hotel [in Los Angeles], he has his publicist fetch his latest -- an $850 SoloEtte "traveling guitar" by Wright Guitars of Oregon. "I love to noodle around," he says, playing a few chords.
Ek's done more than just noodle in online music. He's been more successful at advancing the notion of subscribing to a celestial jukebox than anyone before. While music-subscription services Rhapsody, the legal Napster and MOG (soon to relaunch as Daisy) all pre-date Spotify, Ek has 5 million paying customers -- (five times Rhapsody's base) -- and 20 million active members who use the ad-supported free version. (Spotify charges $5 monthly for ad-free listening on a PC  or $10 for mobile access.)
His twist on rivals was emphasizing the social aspects of music -- showing what your friends are listening to via Facebook. Others had tried to do that but not as successfully.
Now, he wants to take the social aspect of discovering new music to the next level by not only showing you what your pals are listening to, but also what your favorite artists listen to.
With a library of 20 million songs, it can be overwhelming for Spotify subscribers to figure out what to play. "The biggest feedback we get from users is, 'What if I don't know what to listen to?'" says Ek. At the same time, "When we sat down with artists, it was, 'How can we get heard?'"
The solution -- "Discover and Follow" -- was announced in December but has rolled out so gradually that it will finally be in all user accounts by the end of the month.
Beyond just seeing who your friends like, you can follow via the new Discover tab the musical tastes of your favorite artists and music "influencers."
It shows you, for instance, that Justin Bieber listens to Michael Jackson, Rhianna, Jackson 5 and Frank Ocean, or that Maroon 5 digs Al Green, Beck and the Black Keys. Followers of bands will get alerts and updates whenever they release new recorded music. (continued...)
© 2013 USA TODAY under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.
|
