Ken Parks runs Spotify’s U.S. operations and also oversees the digital music service’s global relationships with music labels and publishers. The former EMI executive opened the Spotify office on Ninth Avenue in New York after leasing space from Island Records founder Chris Blackwell in 2010. He’s currently making plans for a move to a larger space for the growing company.
5:00 AM ?I’m an early riser, which helps because I’m on the phone with Stockholm fairly often, which is six hours ahead. I usually have at least one call with our founder/CEO Daniel Ek before breakfast and then start plowing through email.
7:30 AM ?Still reading emails on my train journey.
9:00 AM ?I have a meeting with a facilities manager to discuss layouts for our new offices on 18th Street and Sixth Avenue.
?9:30 AM Huddle with my team. We cover a bunch of different artist services, and we plan out the week ahead.
10:30 AM ?Peter Mensch and Cliff Bernstein of Q Prime come in to talk about upcoming releases and their priorities. They want to know more about what we’re doing, and we need to understand what their artists want.?
12:00 PM I work out at the gym across the street. I listen to playlists put together by my 14-year-old son, Jonathan, which keep me up to date.
1:00 PM ?I grab a sandwich on my way back to the office and have a meeting with Jason Iley, the new president of Roc Nation, and Sandy Smallens, our artist marketing manager, to discuss the streaming exclusive we had for Jay Z’s “Magna Carta.” We’re also the exclusive digital music partner for the Made in America festival.
2:00 PM ?I have a phone call with Ash Pournouri, Avicii’s manager, talking about Avicii’s new single “Wake Me Up” and how we can help promote it and the upcoming album.?
3:00 PM We have regular live sessions with artists at our London and New York offices. Today in New York we have Portugal. The Man.
4:00 PM ?I head across town to the Sony offices to meet with Dennis Kooker, president of Sony’s digital business. We talk about music for a while, but as usual we wind up discussing the [Philadelphia] Phillies.
5:00 PM ?Head to the airport for a London flight to meet with the Music Managers Forum to talk to artist managers about how the Spotify royalty payment system works and how to better work together to promote emerging artists. Clearly these meetings are not unrelated to recent events, but we’ve had a tremendous outpouring of support from artists and look forward to good discussions behind the scenes.