“It’s a super-exciting time for British music,” Austin Daboh told Music Week recently.
Now the senior Spotify exec will be taking that passion elsewhere as he confirmed his departure from the streaming giant to Music Week.
Daboh was promoted to head of shows & editorial last summer. He took over from George Ergatoudis, who left to head up Apple Music in the UK.
Daboh will make the switch to Apple Music as head of editorial, UK & Ireland, although his appointment has not been confirmed by the company.
It follows a successful spell at Spotify, which he joined from BBC Radio 1Xtra. Daboh played a key role on artist and label relations in urban music in Spotify, which has paid off for the DSP as streaming consumption soared for UK rappers this year.
“The one missing piece that people used to talk about with black music was, could we sell albums as an industry?” he recently told Music Week. “If you look at AJ Tracey, Giggs, Fredo and Dave, I think that’s been answered emphatically.”
Daboh also expanded the Who We Be playlist into a successful live event. But, speaking before his exit, he stressed that Spotify “has no favourites” when it comes to backing UK artists.
“If you look at our support of British music on the whole, we have no favourites,” he said. “Urban music is having a moment in the limelight in terms of media, but ultimately we have a commitment to supporting British music, whether it be a big pop artist like Mabel through to someone like Dua Lipa, who’s turning into a global star, and bands established and new, such as Foals, Bring Me The Horizon, Yonaka and Catfish & The Bottlemen.”
Daboh’s exit follows a raft of departures from Spotify, though it has also attracted executive talent.
Neither Spotify or Apple have commented.
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