Spotify Technology SA has contributed $11 million to support the fight against racism, injustice and inequity, having yielded to calls from its employees to support the black community that has helped fuel its success.
Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Ek in a memo to staff said that the company will match up to $10 million of donations to organizations focused on fighting injustice.
The company will also donate $1 million in advertising inventory to social-justice groups over the coming months. On Tuesday it used $345,000 worth of advertising to promote its black history hub.
Calls from employees and artists in the music industry for reforms are beginning to count. While many of the most popular and prominent musicians in the world are black, all three of the major records labels, the world’s biggest concert promoter and its two largest music services are run by white men.
Spotify which has 130 million paying subscribers and operates the world’s largest paid music streaming service relies heavily on black artists.On Wednesday, four of the five most popular songs on the platform were from black performers. Yet none of the company’s board members or senior-most leaders are black.
The company in a statement said, “Spotify is harnessing the power of our platform, the passion of our people, and the full weight of our company resources to support the black community and the fight against systemic racism, injustice, and inequity.”
Spotify yesterday had a town hall moderated by two employees from the Perception Institute, a group of researchers, educators and social-justice advocates. The company has also resolved to make hiring more inclusive.The company’s Black Lives Matter playlist added more than 400,000 followers this week thanks to in-app promotion.
There are still doubts whether the actions taken by the company will suffice for the Spotify’s employees or artists, who have called on the company to take action.
Peter Bresnan, a producer at Spotify on Wednesday via Twitter said, “I have brought this up in every internal channel available to me and leadership has remained passive, so I need help.”
Former Spotify employees have also responded on the social network that they were disappointed with the lack of progress at the company.
