Kobalt boss defends Spotify: 'This attitude that we should kill streaming is a huge mistake'

Willard Ahdritz thinks the music industry may be about to err by placing more faith in Apple's upcoming subscription service

Streaming music service Spotify is under pressure from some major labels to restrict the free version of its service, as Apple prepares to launch a subscription-only competitor. Now the boss of music publisher Kobalt is warning those labels to rethink their strategy.

"This attitude that we should kill streaming is a huge mistake. In Scandinavia in 2009 we had an 80% illegal market. Today it has shrunk to 4%. The credit goes to Spotify, who single handedly took the region from a dark, illegal, non-monetised majority to a thriving, paying majority," Willard Ahdritz told Billboard.

"In my opinion, if Spotify fails, we all lose. There is $1 billion in risk capital from outside investors that has come in to build Spotify and help extinguish piracy.

The idea of 'taking down Spotify,' to trade with another big tech company, will guarantee that there will not be another $1 billion dollars in risk capital that will come in and try to build a music streaming service again. And what happens then? Will kids go back to buying CDs? No."

Related: How much do musicians really make from Spotify, iTunes and YouTube?