Spotify founder Daniel Ek steps down from CEO role | Spotify

Spotify stated Tuesday that founder Daniel Ek is stepping down as CEO to turn out to be the chief chair.The Stockholm-based streaming large stated Ek can be changed by two lieutenants who will turn out to be co-CEOs: chief product and know-how officer Gustav Söderström and chief enterprise officer Alex Norström. The pair, who’re additionally at present copresidents, will transition into their new jobs on 1 January.Spotify stated in a press launch that the transfer “formalizes” how Spotify has been working since 2023, with Söderström and Norström largely main strategic improvement and operational execution.Ek stated that he had already “turned over a big a part of the day-to-day administration and strategic route” to the pair.“This variation merely matches titles to how we already function,” he stated. As govt chairman, Ek stated he’ll concentrate on Spotify’s “lengthy arc”.skip previous e-newsletter promotionA weekly dive in to how know-how is shaping our livesPrivacy Discover: Newsletters might include details about charities, on-line adverts, and content material funded by exterior events. In case you do not need an account, we are going to create a visitor account for you on theguardian.com to ship you this text. You may full full registration at any time. For extra details about how we use your knowledge see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.after e-newsletter promotionIn an internet query and reply session following the announcement, Ek stated his new function wouldn’t be a ceremonial one which buyers with a “US perspective” would possibly anticipate.In Europe, an govt chair is often “fairly energetic within the enterprise” and acts as a consultant to “sure stakeholders” similar to governments, he stated.Ek stated he nonetheless sees development alternatives, together with a “big a part of the world that’s actually not accustomed to streaming” stretching from Asia to Africa, in addition to new know-how together with synthetic intelligence.“I’m gonna maintain pushing for us to go searching the nook, keep centered on the long run,” he stated.Since Ek based Spotify about twenty years in the past, the platform’s rise has helped reworked the music enterprise and paved the way in which for contemporary streaming. Spotify now has greater than 700 million subscribers and a library of greater than 100m songs, 7m podcast titles and 350,000 audiobooks.