Founders: Ola Sars from Beats Music to the soundtrack of hospitality
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Täällä Pekka Paavikinkku. Tänään testaan ruoka-alan ammattilaisten digipalveluita. Eli tästä se säätö alkaa. Ensin valio Aimo'n verkkokauppa. Tehdään tilaus. Valmis.
Siis aivan järkyttävän. Selkeä. Ja niin pitääkin. Kun digipalvelut toimivat, sinä voit keskittyä olennaiseen. Olen Aimo, ruoka-alan ammattilaisten kumppani, ja mukana siellä, missä onnistumisia tehdään. Valjo Aimo. Onnistumisen ainekset. Kyllä, kyllä.
Hello, this is Business Daily on the BBC World Service. I'm Liana Byrne. Today's founder is Ola Saars, a serial entrepreneur in the music tech sector. Hello, Ola. Welcome to Meet the Founders.
Thank you, Liana.
So, Ola, you've spent the last two decades quietly, I feel, shaping how millions of us discover and listen to music. So you've co-founded Beats Music, which laid the foundation for Apple Music to inventing the world's first pocket-sized DJ system. You're also building Spotify business as well, now known as Soundtrack, which licenses background music for restaurants, cafes, other hospitality businesses. And you've repeatedly spotted where the industry was heading before everyone else. How do you feel about that when you listen to all of that back, what you've achieved so far?
Well, I'm Swedish, so we're probably not the best breed in terms of, you know, bragging about what we've done or talking about what we've done at all. But no, but I've been trying to contribute in my way and, you know, the music industry the last 20 years and I've failed many times and sometimes I've been somewhat successful and So trying to be a bit less Swedish, yes, I would take some of the credit for actually creating what is today a quite interesting music industry. But it hasn't been easy and it's been a journey filled with sleepless nights and failures. Yes.
Okay, Ola, let's go back to the very beginning. Take me back to the Stockholm you grew up in. So what kind of child were you? Were you interested in music even in your youth, youth, youth?
I was actually. It started very early. I was going to concerts with friends, actually by myself at 15 years old, 13 years old. But I was actually just like browsing through everything, going to see Prince, starting to go to see some electronic bands and just enjoying the opportunity to dig into different genres.
So your father worked internationally as a water engineer for UNICEF and he was frequently away. So at the time, how did you understand his absence when you were younger?
You know, it wasn't anything like weird back then. I mean, somebody had to pay the bills. And at that time, you know, one of my parents had to work more than the other. We actually moved to the U.S. when I was very small. So I started school in U.S. in New York. Me and my sister didn't speak any English, of course. So we were immigrants in the US without knowing a word of English. And my mother hardly spoke English either when we moved over. So it was quite interesting. But we spent five years over there and then he took off. So we went to the US and then he went to Africa for work. So and then we had to kind of take care of ourselves over there. When we moved back to Sweden again, it was kind of her time.
And she's like, all right, you've done your thing. It's my time to do my thing. And she started her own business in Stockholm and kind of ran kind of a secretary service. So she worked really hard by building her own business.
Who is Ola Sars and what businesses did he build in music tech?
My dad was always, you know, an employee at some organization, but she actually built her own business. So she was the entrepreneur in the family.
What did you learn from watching her? Was she the person who taught you about money?
Yes, she was. You know, she would teach me very basic stuff, like you need to work hard. And if you work hard, then you can have fun whilst you're working. And I think that's what she did. She was able to build her own business and but she did enjoy it. And I saw that she was a freer and more liberated, happy person working hard than people who would kind of be slaves under the system or under a employment.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:02
2
Who is Ola Sars and what businesses did he build in music tech?
4:02–11:45
3
How did Ola's childhood and moving to New York shape his resilience?
11:45–12:08
4
What early musical experiences led Ola to pursue a career in music?
12:08–19:15