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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Ek said he will remain as 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 stock was trading at $687.60, down about 6% on Tuesday morning.
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