Daniel Ek: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yeah, very socially connected, people hanging out in back lots in LA, part of the studio. It probably mattered a lot not to diminish any of their talents, but it probably mattered who you knew. It was an integral component and having talent, so you had two different things. In the last few years, as the budgets have expanded and certainly in the Netflix case, it would have been physically impossible to just keep this same set of producers, directors, et cetera, because they're just trying to make so much more content. One of the interesting things is the same thing is happening now where there are LatAm directors and producers, not just doing local productions but actually now coming to Hollywood and doing that as well. In my case, there's been a bunch of Swedish writers, producers, and actors now that are getting into Hollywood productions. It's been fun to see not just the usual names, but actually some more unknown talent making its way as well. There are more people trying, but there are also more opportunities. Obviously, as you mentioned on the podcasting side, the same is true there. But it's true on both sides. That's the crazy thing. But there's also more competition. When people are talking about Spotify and criticizing it, that's the part is the biggest misconception because they hear so many, many people who are trying, and it doesn't work where they're not making a lot of money from it. They're naturally drawing the conclusion that, hey, there has to be something wrong with the model that this model can't work. But in reality, both things could be true at the same time. There are a lot more people who are failing, but there are also a lot more people who are succeeding. The total pool is so much bigger.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.