Spotify Shares Fall Amid Q1 Guidance: Ek
Spotify shares closed down 17% at $159.76 Thursday after Q4 revenue grew 24% year on year to $3.1 billion. It forecast $2.97 billion in Q1. Citing previous controversies, CEO Daniel Ek said results are typically measured in “months, not days.”…
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Commenting on the “slippery slope” of censoring content, Ek called it a “complicated issue." Spotify is “trying to balance creative expression with the safety of our users," he said. Musician Neil Young had pulled music from Spotify to protest COVID-19 misinformation on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (see 2201310048). Wednesday, Ek referenced the steps Spotify is taking due to the controversy, including putting COVID-19 content on the platform from experts. “The important part here is that we don’t change our policies based on one creator, nor do we change it based on any media cycle or calls from anyone else,” Ek said, not referencing Young by name. The company’s policies were “carefully written with the input from numbers of internal experts,” he said. “And while Joe has a massive audience -- he’s actually the No. 1 podcast in more than 90 markets -- he also has to abide by those policies.” Streaming, meanwhile, replaced the a la carte model, he said: “And now you see lots of subscription services getting to 100 million" subscribers.