Daniel Ek has made more money from Spotify in the last twelve months than any other artist on the platform. While artists such as Taylor Swift, Drake and Ed Sheeran have racked up billions of streams on Spotify, Ek’s earnings far outstrip theirs. According to royalty accountant Hunter Giles, Ek has earned a whopping $345 million since July 2023 through the sale of shares. This sum is hypothetically equivalent to 115 billion streams, which would make him the world’s most streamed “artist” – if he were one. Some time ago, there was a huge shitstorm against the Spotify CEO by artists worldwide and electronic music producer Deadmau5.
Spotify CEO earns more than top musicians – Daniel Ek beats them all
In his latest report, royalty accountant Hunter Giles compares the income of Spotify’s managers with the number of streams that would be required to achieve that level of income. Daniel Ek is, of course, at the top of the list ($345 million, equivalent to around 115 billion streams), followed by Martin Lorentzon, Spotify’s co-founder, whose share is estimated at $166.8 million, equivalent to 55.6 billion streams.
This would hypothetically make Lorentzon the ninth most streamed artist on the Spotify streaming platform. Alex Norström, Co-President of Spotify, is the 185th most streamed artist of all time with an estimated value of $26.4 million and 8.8 billion streams.
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However, Giles stresses that his analysis is not aimed at condemning Spotify’s executives. Rather, he sees the problem in the “misaligned incentives” of capitalism, which distribute wealth unevenly between stakeholders. Daniel Ek has not received a regular salary from Spotify since 2017, according to company documents, and in 2022 was described as one of the “lowest paid major tech CEOs”. Despite this, he received $1.4 million in “other compensation”.
Of course, Spotify should be seen as a huge company whose executives are definitely paid at the level of comparable CEOs at other global companies. The streaming giant is a very large institution that earns a lot of money, and we know why. However, the bad taste comes from the poor distribution of money to musicians and artists, without whom this platform would certainly not be so successful. As you can see from the example above, even the biggest acts are earning less than the top acts – and that’s exactly what I think needs to be improved. I think you see it the same way – don’t you?
More information about Spotify and Daniel Ek
