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The Spotify Play
A review of

The Spotify Play

How CEO and Founder Daniel Ek Beat Apple, Google, and Amazon in the Race for Audio Dominance


Streaming Money

by David Meyer

Swedish tech journalists Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud tell the warts-and-all saga of Spotify’s long hard climb from a tech entrepreneurs’ fantasy to a $35 billion valuation.

Spotify rose to prominence despite long odds, as Swedish tech journalists Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud explain in telling the company’s saga. Only through dogged perseverance did the scrappy firm – which lets users listen to music for free – convince the giants of the music industry to grant it song licenses. And only through stubbornness did Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek stiff-arm increasingly lucrative buyout offers from Microsoft, Google and Tencent. The details of Ek’s ceaseless efforts are both exhausting and inspiring.

Two Swedish Entrepreneurs

Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek were ambitious techies. Ek, who became the face of Spotify, loved technology and music, where Napster shaped his tastes and his view of the internet.


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