Kobalt CEO answers to UMG's Jonathan Dworkin concerns about streaming music

We already reported about the NY:LON Connect conference keynote session during ehich UMG's Jonathan Dworkin expressed concerns about music’s role as background listening now that we entered the streaming.

Dworkin worried that music might become a collateral experience. But Kobalt CEO Willard Ahdritz strongly criticised the sentiment and basically answered Dworkin saying:

When you have some elitist people telling you what you should do or not do? Pope Francis said ‘who am I to judge?’ and I think that is a good expression here too. People did background listening to top 40. But somebody decided what they should listen to.

Ahdritz got back to the topic in his response to comments from Spotify CMO Seth Farbman that the streaming service’s playlists ecosystem was “more like a republic than a democracy”. He strongly approved and commented:

In my experience: there were three majors controlling the top 40 in radio distribution. That’s a dictatorship. So to go from a dictatorship to a republic is a significant improvement!