Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek on Tuesday hit back at Taylor Swift following the singer's decision to pull out her music from the digital music service.
Taylor Swift earlier had explained why she pulled her music on Spotify. She said that Spotify is a "bit like a grand experiment" and that she does not want her "life's work" to that experiment, as reported by The Huffington Post. She added that she thinks that the "experiment" does not pay writers, artists, and producers "fairly" and that she is not up to the idea of giving music for free.
"Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for...It's my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album's price point is. I hope they don't underestimate themselves or undervalue their art," Huffington Post quoted Swift as saying in an article from The Wall Street Journal.
As a response to Taylor's decision, Ek posted a statement on Spotify's blog.
"Taylor Swift is absolutely right: music is art, art has real value, and artists deserve to be paid for it. We started Spotify because we love music and piracy was killing it. So all the talk swirling around lately about how Spotify is making money on the backs of artists upsets me big time," he said in the statement.
Ek emphasized that Spotify's existence is a way of helping fans find music and at the same help them connect with the artists. He defended Spotify saying that it actually protects artists from piracy.
He also quoted record producer Quincy Jones who earlier defended the digital music service saying that "Spotify is not the enemy; piracy is the enemy." Quincy Jones posted his support on his Facebook page.
Ek said in the statement that Spotify paid over $2 billion to labels and artists.
"[T]hat's two billion dollars' worth of listening that would have happened with zero or little compensation to artists and songwriters through piracy or practically equivalent services if there was no Spotify - we're working day and night to recover money for artists and the music business that piracy was stealing away," he said.
Ek also said that it frustrates him whenever he hears artists and singers who claim that they are not compensated from streaming. He stressed that the music industry is now changing.
He also promised to continue working with the music industry and help in increasing transparency and improving the speed of payments. He also vowed to help artists promote themselves and their music and to connect with their fans. "That's our responsibility as a leader in this industry; and it's the right thing to do."
"We're trying to build a new music economy that works for artists in a way the music industry never has before. And it is working - Spotify is the single biggest driver of growth in the music industry, the number one source of increasing revenue, and the first or second biggest source of overall music revenue in many places. Those are facts," he said.
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