Going Public and Peacin' Out

4 March 2018

Spotify finally filed their IPO with the SEC earlier this week. Coincidentally (or not), some of the company’s top execs have turned in their resignations, including:

Kevin Brown (Head of UK/International Artist & Label Services)
Stefan Blom (Chief Content Officer)
Rob Harvey (Head Of US Label Relations)
Tom Calderone (Head Of Video)
Pat Shah (Head of Original Content Licensing)

We now have to add Tuma Basa, Spotify’s head hip-hop curator, to that list. The gatekeeper to and genius behind the Rap Caviar playlist left the company one day after Spotify filed for public offering. Will Spotify be a completely different company now that those who built it up are departing, or will the company be left unaffected?

One prediction is that the music service will lean towards original content. They experimented back in 2017 with the release of a Migos song called "Dab of Ranch." Spotify usually has sessions, but this time they decided to record the Migos track for an exclusive Spotify-only release in hopes of grabbing viewers who desired a special experience. This may have been in response to the recent projects that Apple Music snagged for exclusive deals themselves (i.e. Frank Ocean's Blonde. and Kanye West's The Life of Pablo). Whatever the new strategy is going to be for Spotify, the company truly is in the midst of a massive change and I am excited to see what comes next.