Spotify founder Daniel Ek to step down as CEO

Spotify’s founder-CEO Daniel Ek will transition to executive chairman in January, the Swedish streaming giant announced Tuesday, as it shifts to a co-CEO structure to counter rivals and boost profitability. Billionaire Ek will step away from daily operations as Spotify strategizes to compete with music services from Apple, YouTube, and Amazon.
The company also announced Gustav Söderström, co-President and Chief Product and Technology Officer, and Alex Norström, co-President and Chief Business Officer, as its co-Chief Executive Officers. They will report to Daniel Ek and will also serve on the company’s Board of Directors subject to shareholder approval.
Jaspreet Singh and Supantha Mukherjee for Reuters:
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Ek, a prominent tech entrepreneur of Europe, will focus on capital allocation and long-term strategy as executive chairman in what the company called a European-style role.
“I will be more involved than a typical US chairman. So think of it a little bit like moving from a player to a coach,” said Ek, who has been on the company’s board since 2008.
Founded in 2006, Stockholm-based Spotify helped transform a music industry that had been shrinking for years due to piracy and falling CD sales. Its U.S. debut in 2011 came as industry revenue had slumped. Still, the company reported its first annual profit only in 2024, after a slew of price increases and cost-cutting efforts.
“The big unknown is why Spotify needs an executive chairman and two chief executives as that conjures up the idea that too many cooks spoil the broth,” said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

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MacDailyNews Take: Ek sees the writing on the wall. Half-CEOs Söderström and Norström are in for it.
Any country where Spotify has a “lead” over the clearly superior Apple Music, it’s built of cheapskate, low-value, Android-handicapped non-subscribers who are willing to subject themselves to an ever-growing number of ads in order to save a few pennies per day – not a valuable target for advertisers who aren’t payday loan sharks or bail bondsmen.