Ek will focus mostly on concerns forming Spotify’s future, with the 2 brand-new co-CEOs reporting straight to him
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 03: Daniel Ek, Founder & & CEO, Spotify, at The Future of Audiobooks Event with Spotify 2023 on October 03, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Spotify) Getty Images for Spotify
Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek will step aside as CEO of the streaming platform and go up to a brand-new function as executive chairman.
Ek revealed his choice in a letter shown Spotify personnel on Tuesday, Sept. 30. The business shuffle will enter into result Jan. 1, 2026, with Gustav Söderström, co-president and primary item and innovation officer, and Alex Norström, co-president and primary organization officer, taking control of as co-CEO.
Regardless of the title modifications, Ek will keep a considerable management function at Spotify, specifically in forming the business’s future. He stated he will focus mostly on “technique, capital allowance, regulative efforts, and the calls that will form the next years for Spotify.”
Ek included that Söderström and Norström will continue to report to him, and all 3 will work carefully with the business’s board of directors (which the co-CEOs will sign up with, based on approval). Ek stated the brand-new structure “shows a European Chairman setup,” including that he “will be more hands on than” executives in the U.S. who handle a chairman function.
“I have actually constantly thought of functions as objectives,” Ek stated. “At Spotify, I have actually had about 9 objectives while keeping the very same title. In the early days, I put together furnishings and negotiated our very first offers. I ran financing, I led item and after that I led sales and after that marketing. I have actually held functions and done tasks throughout many groups here. This is just my next objective. My title modifications– however my dedication and belief in what we’re constructing does not.”
While Spotify stays the dominant music streaming platform, the management fine-tune does come at a turbulent time for the business as it faces longstanding problems like criticism over its royalty payment system, along with brand-new ones such as the increasing tide of AI-spam music and streaming scams. Ek has actually likewise been the focus of demonstrations from artists who have actually eliminated their music from Spotify over the executive’s ties to Helsing, a German defense tech business with a specific concentrate on expert system.
Ek not-so-subtly mentioned Spotify’s area at the center of music market discourse at the start of his letter, composing, “In the Spotify these days, all eyes (and ears) are on us. There’s very little we do that goes undetected.” Later on, he acknowledged his ventures outside Spotify, and stated he would continue to assist develop more “supercompanies” in Europe “that are establishing brand-new innovations to take on a few of the most significant obstacles of our time.”
From Wanderer United States.
