When I was in elementary school I ran 5ks and other races because my mom did. However, the only way I would do it was if I had my iPod Shuffle. The problem with the Shuffle was that I had to buy music and download it on to it. I think it cost $1.29 for each song, and when you are 7 years old that can really add up. Daniel Ek saw that problem and changed the music industry forever by creating Spotify in 2006. The problem initially was that Apple’s iTunes provided the music industry much more money with its pay-per-download model. Ek continued to push that over time the music service will generate substantial royalties while avoiding music piracy. In 2012, Spotify had 18 million songs and 20 million active users, though not all were paid subscribers. Only five years later the site has over 35 million songs with 160 million users where 70 million of them are monthly subscribers. The service has blown up and made music streaming the new norm.
This story is so interesting to me because it fixed a problem that was generally accepted and dealt with. Only after it was created did people really see the problem with downloading songs for so much money and piracy. It inspires me to look at the world around me and not always look for problems but ways to make generally accepted parts of life better for everyone around me.