Spare a thought for Daniel Ek's PR manager. The CEO of music streaming service Spotify put his foot in his mouth recently with a comment that has riled up the global music community. Ek said in an interview that given current distribution models, artistes can't afford to release material once every three to four years and expect to get by. What he essentially did with that statement is commodify a creative art form into a factory-made product that you can buy off a supermarket shelf. Many of the world's biggest musicians, such as David Crosby and Mike Mills of R.E.M, had some colourful words for him in response that aren't suitable for a family newspaper. But even closer to home, Indian artistes aren't exactly putting their hands up to defend what he said.

Keshav Dhar of progressive metal act Skyharbor is one such person who took to social media to take Ek to the cleaners. He tells us that the CEO has devalued the very art form that he built his career on. Dhar says, "It [Spotify] is a business. I understand that. But it's a little rich for Ek to say what he did when he is profiteering massively from our work. It's insulting. The facts are there for all to see. The payout you get from streams is an absolute embarrassment, it's like 0.000 something cents per listen. So you have to get millions of hits to earn enough whereas, on the other hand, people like Ek are making a fortune. It's daylight robbery, to be honest."