Daniel Ek, the founder and CEO of Spotify, is moving upstairs to become the music streaming giant’s executive chairman.
Ek will make the switch from January 2026. In his place, Spotify has appointed co-CEOs: Gustav Söderström, co-president and chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, co-president and chief business officer.
Spotify said Ek’s role will reflect a European chairman setup, under which he will determine capital allocation, map the long-term future of Spotify, and provide support to the senior team.
“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. This change simply matches titles to how we already operate,” he said.
Ek founded Spotify in 2006 out of Sweden and it has gone on to become one of the world’s biggest music streaming services. The company has 696M users, including 276M subscribers across 184 markets.