The coronavrius pandemic has not been kind to a majority of businesses out there. Economic fluctuations, losses and downsizing is an unfortunate reality that companies have had to go through since the pandemic took over the world. But some businesses had an opposite effect. The pandemic actually boosted business, and streaming giant Spotify was one of them.

Spotify’s stock value currently remains at an all time high at $50 Billion USD, and peaked while a lot of companies were recovering from a sharp dip. In its latest quarterly financial results, the company announced 138 million subscribers and 299 million monthly active users, adding 13 million respectively for Q2. In a recent interview with Music Ally, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek discussed the relationship between artistes and streaming.

“Even today on our marketplace, there’s literally millions and millions of artists. What tends to be reported are the people that are unhappy, but we very rarely see anyone who’s talking about… In the entire existence [of Spotify] I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single artist saying ‘I’m happy with all the money I’m getting from streaming,’” Ek said to Music Ally. “Stating that publicly. In private [musicians] have done that many times, but in public they have no incentive to do it. But unequivocally, from the data, there are more and more artists that are able to live off streaming income in itself.

Ek continued, “There is a narrative fallacy here, combined with the fact that, obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough.”

But Ek believes artists should put in more work in your projects and maintaining a good fan base.  “The artists today that are making it realize that it’s about creating a continuous engagement with their fans. It is about putting the work in, about the storytelling around the album, and about keeping a continuous dialogue with your fans,” said Ek.

Musicians are currently not earning money from tours and live performances. Platforms like SoundCloud and Bancamp have helped artistes by setting up a fundraisers or giving profits to artistes.