The Most Important Man In Music ⇥

Steven Bertoni for Forbes:

[Spotify founder Daniel] Ek, with the help of industry lawyer Fred Davis, initially tried to get global music rights and was quickly turned down. So he aimed for European licenses, which he figured would take three months—it took two years. Ek and his team hounded label execs, pitching them that their free, ad-based model would eventually lead to more sales. No one bit. “They’d say, ‘Yeah, this sounds really interesting’ or ‘Send me over some stats,’ which really means ‘There’s no way in hell we’re going to do this,’”

This story of an ambitious disruption to the music business is unfortunately spread over five pages, because Forbes thinks we can’t scroll. It’s worth a read, though.