Spotify’s co-founder Daniel Ek to step down as CEO after nearly two decades

Spotify’s longtime Chief Govt Daniel Ek mentioned Tuesday that he’s stepping down from his place subsequent 12 months and can change into govt chairman.

Ek, 42, co-founded the Swedish audio firm in 2006 and has served as CEO because the starting.

His imaginative and prescient was to discover a strategy to battle towards music piracy by providing a platform the place shoppers may pay to stream music.

Spotify has grown to greater than 700 million customers and has expanded into new classes past music, together with podcasts and audiobooks. Spotify has a large office in downtown Los Angeles.

“The best way he constructed a enterprise mannequin from scratch is basically outstanding,” mentioned Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com. “It’s not simply the thought and it’s not simply the execution, it’s a mixture of each issues, and I believe that he did that masterfully.”

Gustav Söderström, chief product and expertise officer; and Alex Norström, chief enterprise officer, who’ve served as the corporate’s co-presidents since 2023, will transition to co-CEOs on Jan. 1.

In a video posted on LinkedIn, Ek mentioned that it was the appropriate time to make the management transition, including that Spotify has been worthwhile for greater than a 12 months and that his co-presidents have been “doing a tremendous job.” He famous the executives made key contributions to the corporate, from audiobooks to scaling video podcasts.

“Over the previous couple of years, I’ve turned over a big a part of the day-to-day administration and strategic route of Spotify to Alex and Gustav, who’ve formed the corporate from our earliest days and at the moment are greater than able to information our subsequent section,” Ek mentioned in an announcement. “This variation merely matches titles to how we already function.”

Below Ek’s management, Spotify has weathered a number of controversies and protests from artists.

Earlier this 12 months, Ek was criticized by some musicians for leading a funding round of almost $700 million to protection firm Helsing. Some artists pulled their music from Spotify in protest.

Whereas Spotify paid greater than $10 billion in 2024 to the music trade, some artists have complained that they don’t accumulate sufficient cash from the streaming platform.

One other supply of friction has concerned AI and copyright infringement. Previously 12 months, Spotify mentioned 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 mentioned he’ll change into govt chairman and give attention to technique, capital allocation and regulatory efforts. Söderström and Norström will report back to Ek and work with the board of administrators.

Söderström mentioned in a name on Tuesday with traders that his core obligations are product and expertise, whereas Norström oversees enterprise, markets and content material.

“Alex is deeply and educated about product and I’m very fascinated about enterprise, so we run this as a single group, our joint groups collectively,” Söderström mentioned. “So in follow, not that a lot will change from how we run the businesses.”

Spotify posted a internet lack of 86 million Euros within the second quarter of this 12 months, in comparison with internet earnings of 274 million Euros a 12 months earlier, citing personnel prices, skilled companies, payroll taxes and advertising prices.

Spotify inventory closed at $698, down about 4% on Tuesday.