Spotify‘s SVP of strategic partnerships Paul Brown is to leave the music streaming service this week for a new startup outside of the digital music space.
Brown tells Music Week it was an opportunity he “had to take”, having been with Spotify for 18 months where he first joined as MD of the UK office, having previously worked at Pandora. However, he was quickly promoted to the role of strategic partnerships so it’s potentially a major loss for Spotify.
That said, the music startup, which is still yet to launch in the U.S., hasn’t quite seen the success it needs in securing those partnerships that will turn the subscription service into the ‘feels-like-free’ offering required to be a mass success. As paidContent notes, “Spotify has struck several partnerships on the marketing front, but so far counts only Three UK and Telia as much-sought-after carrier partners.”
Brown isn’t the only high profile hire to announce that they’ll be exiting the startup. Spotify’s head of design Rasmus Andersson is also leaving, in this case to join Facebook.