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Daniel Ek05 October 2023

Spotify Founder: “Your Music Taste Could Signal The Books You NEED to Read” - Daniel Ek

7Frameworks
15Insights

Frameworks in this episode

Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 3

Myth Buster17:30

Most entrepreneurs have under-thought it — but starting still beats 99% of people

what I often tell entrepreneurs is that um you know if you even start something you're better than 99% um other people

Daniel Ek · 17:30

I generally think when I meet entrepreneurs that they've under thought um uh the space the solution what value they're creating for

Daniel Ek · 18:00
Myth Buster28:30

Streaming didn't turn songs into 30-second clips

we went from about uh 430 to today uh 350 um something like that it's not changed to 30 second songs

Daniel Ek · 28:30
Myth Buster41:00

Work-life balance is the wrong model — think entropy

one one thing I do hate is when people talk about work life balance um because people talk about it as there being an equilibrium…

Daniel Ek · 41:00

I do what I love to do so I have a lot of fun while doing it I don't live to work

Daniel Ek · 41:30

Hot Take· 2

Hot Take13:00

Could your music taste predict which books you'll want?

we're looking for uh is your music taste um a possible indicator what kind of books you may like

Daniel Ek · 13:00
Hot Take39:30

The leader's job is a high bar: unless it's a hell yeah, it's no

the hardest things to do as a leader is you have to have a very high bar for people

Daniel Ek · 39:30

unless it's a hell yeah it's no right on almost everything

Daniel Ek · 39:30

Explainer· 5

Explainer02:00

What Spotify actually launched: audiobooks inside Premium

audiobooks uh well actually all Spotify Premium users in UK and Australia now have audiobooks as part of their package so they get 15 hours…

Daniel Ek · 02:00
Explainer03:00

Why the old audiobook credit model suppressed discovery

a big problem with the previous credit model was you kind of had one shot and so you're more likely to take the things you…

Daniel Ek · 03:00
Explainer05:30

Audiobooks are massively under-penetrated: 5% in the US vs half the market in Germany

I think the number right now is about 5% in the US

Daniel Ek · 05:30

so that means that audiobooks is massively under penetrated uh and we need to bring innovation in order to do so

Daniel Ek · 05:30
Explainer30:30

Ek's morning ritual: no notifications, slow reading, and a walk

I try to do exercise in the morning because it gives me more energy throughout the rest of the day even if it's just a…

Daniel Ek · 31:00

my morning ritual is incredibly important to set my mental state in the right thing

Daniel Ek · 31:00
Explainer28:00

Ek's prediction: a wider diversity of authors will get signed

so I think you're going to see a wider diversity of authors and that in turn uh May of course hopefully lead to more authors…

Daniel Ek · 28:00

Story· 1

Story18:00

Being 'half pregnant' is what stopped Ek quitting Spotify

I had a team they were dependent on me and I just had to power through

Daniel Ek · 18:00

with this world getting started is the hardest part

Daniel Ek · 19:00

Q&A· 1

Q&A24:00

Does Ek have a coach? He rotates thinkers from far-off fields instead

I I tend to look for um thinkers who are in a very probably quite far field from myself and and then I tend to…

Daniel Ek · 24:30

Tool· 2

Tool19:30

Ali's weekly one-hour team thinking block: Slack off, pen and paper only

a Wednesday morning 1 hour everyone's on Zoom slack is off everyone has a pen and paper and notebook and just thinks about the area…

Ali Abdaal · 19:30
Tool20:00

Single-threaded vs multi-threaded meetings, and the 'bullpen'

he talked about single-threaded Mee meetings versus multi-threaded meetings

Daniel Ek · 20:00

and he called it the bullpen meeting so basically like you bring everyone together and you slot kind of like you do uh for one…

Daniel Ek · 20:30

Takeaway· 1

Takeaway46:00

Final advice: stay curious, and invest in yourself

my biggest advice is um stay curious um and uh be focused on learning um the biggest single biggest investment you could do is in…

Daniel Ek · 46:00