Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Spotify Lands a Biz Dev Guy: Clear Channel’s Gerrit Meier

Now that Spotify has its U.S. distribution deal and a fire hose of traffic from Facebook, it’s time to start ramping up revenue.

Last month, the music subscription service hired a new sales boss: former AOL executive Jeff Levick. And now it has brought in someone to head up business development: Gerrit Meier, one of Clear Channel’s top digital executives.

Spotify confirmed that it has hired Meier, the former chief operating officer of digital at Clear Channel Radio, as “GM Distribution and Partnerships,” and that he’ll report to U.S. head Ken Parks in New York.

People familiar with his hire tell me his big-picture job is to put together international distribution and partnership deals. If, for instance, Spotify wanted to partner up with Verizon Wireless on a subscription package, he’d be the guy in charge of that.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work