One of Spotify‘s longest-serving executives, Ken Parks – a key contact for the biggest music rights-holders around the world – is leaving the Swedish-born streaming business.
Parks (pictured) was Spotify’s first employee in the US market, becoming MD of Spotify USA when it launched in 2011.
He has also remained a close ally of Spotify founder Daniel Ek since joining the then-fledgling company in 2007 – and will remain a ‘special advisor’ to Ek after leaving the firm.
Parks is becoming Executive Director of Pluto TV in October – a start-up offering free internet television cribbed from the likes of Hulu and YouTube.
“I believe Pluto TV has an enormous opportunity to define the future of television and online video,” he said.
“As an advisor [to Pluto] since 2014, I’ve had a front row seat to the rapid growth the company has achieved so far and I’m thrilled to join the team full-time.
Parks is being replaced as Chief Content Officer at Spotify by Stefan Blom.
Blom is currently Spotify’s Chief Strategy Officer, where he oversees Spotify’s strategy, operations, markets, and corporate development activities around the world.
Prior to joining Spotify, Blom worked in various senior positions at EMI Music, serving most recently as CEO and Chairman of the group’s Nordic operations.
Before Parks joined Spotify, he was an intellectual property lawyer specialising in technology and IP related transactions.
He worked for companies such as Reuters and EMI Music.
Spotify has over 20 million paid subscribers and 75 million users today and generated $1.3 billion in revenue in 2014.Music Business Worldwide
