Spotify's CEO "Steps Down" (Into the Chair Next Door): A Masterclass in Changing SFA

Or: How to Rearrange Deck Chairs While Your Super Yacht Is On Fire

After nearly two decades running the world's largest music streaming platform, Daniel Ek is stepping down as CEO of Spotify and into Executive Chairman. And if you're thinking "Wait, doesn't that sound a bit like the corporate equivalent of your dad saying he's 'retired' but still showing up to the office every day telling everyone how to do their jobs?" Congratulations, you're paying attention.

The "Change" That Changes Nothing

Let's break down this leadership shuffle, shall we? Ek will be replaced by two long-time, loyal executives. These are guys he trusts and will ultimately be able to control.

In case you're wondering just how much of a change this really is, "Fun fact, we actually sit in the same room, the three of us," said incoming co-CEO Alex Norström on the investor call. "People are very surprised when they see that".

Surprised? Seriously? Which of you bitches was surprised??? Not this little black duck, that’s for sure. The only thing surprising here is that Spotify shareholders thought this would fool anyone.

Why Artists Are (Rightfully) Not Having It

So why are artists boycotting Spotify in droves? Oh, let us count the ways:

Reason #1: The War Profiteering Thing

In June 2025, Ek's investment firm Prima Materia led a €600 million funding round in Helsing, a German-French defence tech company that develops AI-powered software and hardware for military use, including combat drones. Because nothing says "I care about music" like investing in autonomous death machines. What a sweetie.

Artists including King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Deerhoof pulled their music, with Deerhoof saying they don't want their "music killing people," and describing Spotify as a "data-mining scam". Thanks for finally getting it kids - these are NOT the good guys!

Reason #2: The Poverty Wages

Artist Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof explained: "We won't return to Spotify unless they start to treat every artist respectfully and pay them a fair amount. Spotify's payment of $0.003 per stream won't even get us a can of soda".

For context, that's THREE-TENTHS OF A CENT per stream. You know what else costs about that much? Absolutely nothing. And you know how long The Pack’s been yelling about this? Almost a decade. Thanks for not coming to our TED talk (OK, OK… I’ll try to stop being a salty biatch).

Reason #3: The "Content" Contempt

But perhaps what is most telling to us is that in his farewell statement, Ek never once mentions the word "music". However, he does use the word "product" three times.

Musicians, your life's work is "product." Your artistic expression is "content." You are a “commodity.” And Daniel Ek's vomitus $9.9 billion net worth? That's apparently just good business sense, baby! You need to truly understand this. I absolutely beg you to hear us now. These people are not here for music or musicians. They’re here for money, pure and simple, and they’re taking it from YOU.

The Scams Keep Coming

Oh, you thought it was just about underpaying artists? Sweet summer child, hold my chardonnay.

In the 2025 book Mood Machine, author Liz Pelly explains how Spotify was caught stuffing its recommendation playlists with music they had commissioned from partners - generic, bargain-bin imitations of music no one paid attention to, like 'music to fall asleep to.' A Swedish newspaper found that as few as 20 songwriters were behind more than 500 "artists" on Spotify. This is the old ‘hit machine’ on steroids - pop production factories, but without even the fun of cut manufactured boy bands.

So not only are they underpaying real artists, they're flooding the platform with fake artists to… what? Avoid paying royalties altogether? It's a turducken of exploitation - exploitative schemes wrapped in more exploitative schemes until they all just tase like chicken.

And while Spotify kindly removed 75 million 'spam' tracks in 2025, the company has avoided releasing numbers on AI-generated music on its platform. Translation: "We cleaned up some of the obvious mess we could no longer hide, but we're not telling you about the rest of the AI slop you’re being forced to compete against."

The reality for us is this. Daniel Ek is still there. The exploitation continues. The artists still make fractions of cents. The only thing that changed was the title on his business card.

Meanwhile, over at The Pack...

While Spotify is playing musical chairs with executives who literally sit in the same room, The Pack is developing a 1:1 creator-consumer model where each subscription goes directly to the artists that a member has streamed, guaranteeing artists 70% of revenues, forever.

It’s doing this on the back of its re-mortgaged founders, two hardworking female unsigned musos from Perth WA, who have literally put everything on the line to get this project across the line for musicians. They are not trust fund nepo babies - they’re gals who work day jobs to feed this project.

While Spotify treats music as "product" and artists as content farms, The Pack is being designed to feature only original, human-created music from unsigned musicians, with musicians retaining full rights to their work, data, and creative decisions.

While Spotify's billionaire founder invests in death drones, The Pack is a member-owned cooperative where decisions are made by its volunteer Board (no big money shareholders here) and its members – musicians and music lovers - not billionaire CEOs, investors, and major labels.

While Spotify floods its platform with AI-generated slop and fake artists, The Pack will feature human curation where community will shape playlists that celebrate local music and elevate underrepresented voices.

We're not saying we're better than Spotify. We're just saying that if your business model requires you to underpay artists so severely that they can't afford a can of soda after 100 streams, while your founder builds a $9.9 billion fortune investing in weapons technology... maybe you're really the not the good guys??? Hey Dan… let’s have a little look into that mirror… how’s your soul looking these days?

What You Can Actually Do

Look, we get it. Spotify has all your playlists. Your Discover Weekly knows you better than your therapist. Your Spotify Wrapped is your nerd certification strategy. But at The Pack, our artists will control the distribution of their music, free for artists forever (no aggregator fees), and cooperative rules enshrine fairness in policy and practice. No war profiteering. No poverty wages. No fake artists. No billionaires. Just real music, made by humans, paid fairly, in a system owned by the people who make and love it.

Because real therapy comes from being part of a community. What’s healthier than that?

The Pack Music Co-operative: Where your subscription goes to artists, not arms dealers. You can contribute to the crowdfunding campaign here.