Category Archives: Commentary

Daniel Ek

Daniel Ek and “His” Spotify…the Ruin of the Musicians Community

Daniel Ek, Spotify…Daniel Ek, Spotify…Daniel Ek, Spotify?  Ek owns nearly 9% of the Spotify shares, but has 37% of voting control?!

An Editorial by Dawoud Kringle

Daniel EkDaniel Ek was born February 21st, 1983 in Stockholm, Sweden. He graduated high school from IT-Gymnasiet in Sundbyberg in 2002, and subsequently studied engineering at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology before dropping out to focus on his IT career. At age 13 he started a business making websites for clients from his home. This was successful; he went from charging $100 to $5,000 per website. Ek soon recruited students from his class to work on the websites from the school computer lab (he was reputed to have bribed them with video games). His earnings eventually reached $50,000 per month and by age 18 he was managing a team of 25.

Continue reading →

RIP Eddie Van Halen 1955 – 2020

Text by Dawoud Kringle

On Tuesday, October 6th, 2020, Edward Lodewijk “Eddie” Van Halen died of cancer at the age of 65.

In 1978, I was listening to the radio, and the DJ of the local rock station announced that he was going to play something from the debut album of a band named Van Halen. Then Eruption came on. As Van Halen’s jaw dropping display of chops smashed through the speakers and seared itself into my ears, I stared at the radio, unable to believe what I was hearing.

Continue reading →

Covid 19 – A Moment of Crisis and Opportunity

It’s up to us to steer things in a direction of fairness and balance for all people and an unprecedented evolution of musical and artistic expression. 

By Dawoud Kringle

As I write this beginning paragraph, I just finished watching a documentary about New York City between 1977 and 1981. It hit home with me because I moved to New York City in 1983 and experienced (survived) the latter part of this era.

Continue reading →

TikTok

TikTok: A Blessing or a Curse for the Professional Musician?

TikTokBy Dawoud Kringle

Blink your eyes, and a new social media platform pops up. And with it, a new set of questions for the professional musician, and a new set of variables to complicate an already treacherous territory of the music business.

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming (ByteDance also owns Toutiao, Xigua Video, TopBuzz and BuzzVideo).

Continue reading →