Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, now can boast that he helped make peace between Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder, and Metallica's Lars Ulrich. The three told the audience at Spotify's press event today that the fight between them was just a misunderstanding.
(Credit:
Greg Sandoval/CNET)
NEW YORK--Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Sean Parker, one of the founders of file-sharing service Napster, made peace today.
The two men joined Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, on stage during the company's press event here. Turns out that Ulrich and Parker share a love of Spotify. Ulrich announced that Metallica is now on Spotify.
Besides offering testimonials about how much they enjoy using Spotify's service, the two shared their experiences of their now famous confrontation when Ulrich declared war on Napster, the pioneering peer-to-peer service more than a decade ago.
"Our manager told us that our [unreleased] song was playing on the radio," Ulrich recalled. "I told him 'Maybe we should go over there and...'." He pounded his hand with his fist.
By adding Metallica's catalog to its music library, Spotify gains a big boost in credibility with artists. Ulrich and the band have had the reputation since filing suit against Napster in 2000 as being against digital services.
The big criticism from the music industry is that Spotify pays very little money to artists. Ek said the company is trying to build its audience and as the audience gets bigger, the more money will come in for Spotify and for music acts. He said the company has paid over $500 million to artists so far.
Spotify announced an important benchmark, hitting 1 million paid U.S. subscribers in one year. Rhapsody, by contrast, was in business more than a decade before reaching that many subscribers.
Worldwide, Spotify now has 5 million paying customers and 20 million users overall, Ek told the audience. In addition to Spotify's paid service, the company offers a free listening experience.
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Sean Parker of Spotify joins Metallic's Lars Ulrich on stage
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Sean Parker of Spotify joins Metallic's Lars Ulrich on stage
