“Enough’s enough”: deadmau5 threatens to pull music from Spotify following Daniel Ek “cost of creating content” comments

deadmau5 has threatened to remove his music from Spotify following comments made by the platform’s CEO Daniel Ek, in which he said the cost of creating content is “close to zero”.

When Ek made the comments last month, outrage from across the music world – the very world Ek and Spotify profit from – predictably ensued.

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Pondering the “concept of long shelf life versus short shelf life” with regards to music, Ek wrote: “Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content.”

While such comments may not have been as inflammatory from a different source, Daniel Ek is, himself, a multi-billionaire, and many artists who distribute music via his platform feel significantly underpaid for their contributions to its growth.

Many smaller artists understandably took issue with his viewpoints at the time, and now a more notable voice has taken opposition to them in the form of DJ and producer deadmau5, who has said he may remove his music from Spotify, and called those who run the platform “fucking vultures”.

Sharing a screenshot of a headline on Instagram which reads: “Spotify CEO claims “the cost of creating content” is “close to zero”, deadmau5 responds in the caption: “Incorrect. The cost of creating content was 25+ years of my life and much of those proceeds going to your company you complete fucking idiot.”

And in response to a user’s comment on his post – which reads: “We hate Spotify so much” – deadmau5 replies, “I feel that, I’m about to pull my catalogue from these fucking vultures, enough’s enough.”

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deadmau5’s threats came five days ago at the time of writing, and his music remains available to listen to on Spotify. It’s unclear at this stage whether he plans to follow through and remove his catalogue.

This isn’t the first time Daniel Ek has landed himself in hot water with the creators his platform relies on. In March, he justified low royalty payments to artists by likening the music industry to professional football, saying only a handful of artists ever become successful enough to make a sustainable living.

“Football is played by millions of people – but there’s a very small number that can live off playing full time,” he said.