Spotify’s co-founder Daniel Ek to step down as CEO after nearly two decades
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Spotify’s longtime Chief Executive Daniel Ek said Tuesday that he is stepping down from his position next year and will become executive chairman.
Ek, 42, co-founded the Swedish audio company in 2006 and has served as CEO since the beginning.
His vision was to find a way to fight against music piracy by offering a platform where consumers could pay to stream music.
Spotify has grown to more than 700 million users and has expanded into new categories beyond music, including podcasts and audiobooks. Spotify has a large office in downtown Los Angeles.
“The way he built a business model from scratch is really remarkable,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com. “It’s not just the idea and it’s not just the execution, it is a combination of both things, and I think that he did that masterfully.”
Gustav Söderström, chief product and technology officer; and Alex Norström, chief business officer, who have served as the company’s co-presidents since 2023, will transition to co-CEOs on Jan. 1.
Spotify on Thursday said it removed 75 million AI spammy tracks in the past 12 months, including deepfakes.
In a video posted on LinkedIn, Ek said that it was the right time to make the leadership transition, adding that Spotify has been profitable for more than a year and that his co-presidents have been “doing an amazing job.” He noted the executives made key contributions to the company, from audiobooks to scaling video podcasts.
“Over the last few years, I’ve turned over a large part of the day-to-day management and strategic direction of Spotify to Alex and Gustav, who have shaped the company from our earliest days and are now more than ready to guide our next phase,” Ek said in a statement. “This change simply matches titles to how we already operate.”
Under Ek’s leadership, Spotify has weathered several controversies and protests from artists.
Earlier this year, Ek was criticized by some musicians for leading a funding round of nearly $700 million to defense company Helsing. Some artists pulled their music from Spotify in protest.
Daniel Ek’s investments in AI dronemaker Helsing have unnerved artists. One called Spotify a “violent armageddon portal.”
While Spotify paid more than $10 billion in 2024 to the music industry, some artists have complained that they don’t collect enough money from the streaming platform.
Another source of friction has involved AI and copyright infringement. In the past 12 months, Spotify said it has removed more than 75 million AI-generated “spammy” music tracks and is stepping up its crackdown on unauthorized AI-generated use of artists’ voices.
Ek said he will become executive chairman and focus on strategy, capital allocation and regulatory efforts. Söderström and Norström will report to Ek and work with the board of directors.
Söderström said in a call on Tuesday with investors that his core responsibilities are product and technology, while Norström oversees business, markets and content.
“Alex is deeply interested and knowledgeable about product and I’m very interested in business, so we run this as a single team, our joint teams together,” Söderström said. “So in practice, not that much will change from how we run the companies.”
Spotify posted a net loss of 86 million Euros in the second quarter of this year, compared to net income of 274 million Euros a year earlier, citing personnel costs, professional services, payroll taxes and marketing costs.
Spotify stock closed at $698, down about 4% on Tuesday.
