Having helped transform the music industry, Ek and content chief Dawn Ostroff set their sights (and your ears) on spending hundreds of millions on exclusive podcasts and recruiting Jordan Peele, Mark Wahlberg and the Obamas in a race for scale with Apple and Amazon.

In the streaming age, "boilerplate" contract provisions may be outdated for artists who want to reclaim their older songs: "I see broader blanket prohibitions coming."