UPDATE: As Spotify’s first public stock offering debuts, co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek is urging both excitement and caution. “Our focus isn’t on the initial splash,” writes Ek in a blog post, “Instead, we will be working on trying to build, plan, and imagine for the long term.”
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Most analysts are predicting Spotify’s stock price to be volatile, particularly when it opens Tuesday, as investors decide what the company is actually worth. But CEO Daniel Ek says all that really doesn’t matter because, “Spotify is not raising capital, and our shareholders and employees have been free to buy and sell our stock for years. So while tomorrow puts us on a bigger stage, it doesn’t change who we are, what we are about, or how we operate.”
“important to me is that tomorrow
does not become the most important day for Spotify”
“Of course, I am proud of what we’ve built over the last decade. But what’s even more important to me is that tomorrow does not become the most important day for Spotify,” Ek adds.
Ek is clearly urging investors and the broader music industry to take the long view: “It’s the day after, and the following day that matters — and all those days to come. Because that’s when we will continue the hard and important work of our mission: To unlock the potential of human creativity — by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.”
“We have a lot to do — we are only in the second inning — and I’m more excited than ever for the future,” Ek concludes. “Remember, tomorrow is just another day in our journey to fulfill our mission. Harder, better, faster, stronger.”
Read Ek’s full post here.