While musicians faced an existential crisis during a pandemic, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s ownership stake in Spotify climbed to be worth over $4 billion. In order to earn $4 billion, a musician earning the median wage of $25,000 would have to work for 160,000 years – in other words, they’d have to have started working before human history began.

Artists used radio as their top-of-funnel channel, to get discovered. They subsequently went on tour as their mid-funnel device to re-engage fans through live concerts. And to make money, artists monetized fans at the bottom of this funnel at local record stores when they bought CDs. At each step of the way, labels had control.

Consumers transitioned from the ownership of physical CDs and Digital MP3s to accessing an unlimited catalog of music, for $9.99 / month (a price that has not changed almost 13 years later).