Spotify founder Daniel Ek to step down as CEO amid move to new position
Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify, is set to step down as the company’s CEO as he moves to a new position within the streaming service.
In a social media video released on September 30th, Ek revealed that he will be moving to become Spotify’s executive chair as of January 2026. The company has appointed Gustav Söderström, its current co-president and chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, co-president and chief business officer, to take over Ek’s role as co-CEOs.
Ek explained: “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.”
His new role as executive chair means Ek will now support Spotify’s senior team in making financial decisions and carving out its next steps as a company into the future.
It comes shortly after Ek faced a period of increasing criticism and pressure, after it emerged in June that he invested €600million in a German company called Helsing, which produces AI drones capable of being used in military warfare.
This led to a mass exodus of artists leaving the platform in protest of this move, including King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, who transferred their entire back catalogue to the alternative streamer Bandcamp, which operates on a ‘name your price’ model for users.
Ek was the original founder of Spotify and has been its CEO since it launched in Sweden in 2006. As of the most recently published data, the platform now has over 696 million users worldwide.
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