SPOTIFY NEEDS TO MAKE A DECISION ABOUT ITS FUTURE, BASED ON WHETHER IT ACTUALLY BELIEVES ITS OWN MISSION STATEMENT
Out of all the buzz that Spotify continues to amass as a leading music-streaming service, one problem that virtually no one in the music business has discussed yet is the gaping hole between Spotify’s oft-trumpeted mission statement and its actual business model. Over the past year and a half, Spotify has made its two-pronged mission loud and clear in investor presentations and on its website: “[To] unlock the potential of human creativity — by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.” The streaming company has attempted to “[give] a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art” — or at least jumpstart that part of their objective — by acquiring startups that offer creative tools for musicians and podcasters. There was Soundtrap, a cloud-based collaborative audio workstation, in November 2017; then Anchor, the podcast creation, hosting, distribution and monetizati...
