Spotify founder Daniel Ek steps down from CEO function

[ad_1] Spotify mentioned Tuesday that founder Daniel Ek is stepping down as CEO to turn out to be the manager chair.

The Stockholm-based streaming big mentioned Ek can be changed by two lieutenants who will turn out to be co-CEOs: chief product and expertise officer Gustav Söderström and chief enterprise officer Alex Norström. The pair, who're additionally presently copresidents, will transition into their new jobs on 1 January.

Spotify mentioned 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 mentioned that he had already “turned over a big a part of the day-to-day administration and strategic course” to the pair.

“This modification merely matches titles to how we already function,” he mentioned. As government chairman, Ek mentioned he'll concentrate on Spotify’s “lengthy arc”.

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In a web-based query and reply session following the announcement, Ek mentioned his new function wouldn't be a ceremonial one which traders with a “US perspective” may count on.

In Europe, an government chair is usually “fairly energetic within the enterprise” and acts as a consultant to “sure stakeholders” reminiscent of governments, he mentioned.

Ek mentioned he nonetheless sees progress alternatives, together with a “large a part of the world that’s actually not accustomed to streaming” stretching from Asia to Africa, in addition to new expertise together with synthetic intelligence.

“I’m gonna hold pushing for us to go searching the nook, keep centered on the long run,” he mentioned.

Since Ek based Spotify about 20 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.