Spotify names co-CEOs as Daniel Ek prepares to step down next year

[Karlston]

Spotify has announced an "evolution" of its leadership starting January 1, 2026. Daniel Ek, the Swedish technologist who co-founded the company in 2006 with Martin Lorentzon, will step away from his current CEO position and move into the role of Executive Chairman.

 

Gustav Söderström, who has been at the company since 2009 and is the current co-President and Chief Product and Technology Officer, will join Alex Norström, the Co-President and Chief Business Officer, to become co-CEO. Both have been with the company for over fifteen years and have already been handling a large part of the day-to-day management.

 

In a letter to Spotify employees, Ek spoke about how the company has grown from a "makeshift office" in Stockholm to a global service with more than 700 million users. He claimed that as Executive Chairman, he will focus on "strategy, capital allocation, regulatory efforts, and the calls that will shape the next decade for Spotify."

As Executive Chairman, I will spend more of my time on the long arc: strategy, capital allocation, regulatory efforts and the calls that will shape the next decade for Spotify. Gustav and Alex will continue to report to me and we will work closely together with our Board of Directors. This approach reflects a European Chairman setup, which is quite different from a traditional U.S. one that many of you might be familiar with. This also means I will be more hands on than some of my U.S. peers who have a Chairman title.

Spotify has come a long way since it launched back in 2008, adding new features to the platform along the way. Recently, the company finally brought the long-awaited Lossless Audio feature to the platform. This new option for Premium subscribers offers higher quality streaming up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC. The company is rolling it out to over 50 countries throughout next month. In the app's settings under "Media Quality," you can select "Lossless" for Wi-Fi, cellular, or downloads.

 

In addition to that, the company introduced "Pick & Play" for its free users about two weeks ago. The update removes the previous restriction of only being able to listen to albums and playlists in shuffle mode. Free users on mobile can now select and play any specific song they want.

 

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Posted Wednesday 1 October 2025 at 6:17 am AEST (my time).

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