Spotify founder steps down from CEO role

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LONDON (AP) — Spotify said Tuesday that founder Daniel Ek is stepping down as CEO to become the executive chairman, in an announcement that sent its shares sliding in premarket trading.

The Stockholm-based streaming giant said Ek will be replaced by two lieutenants who will become co-CEOs: Chief Product and Technology Officer Gustav Söderström and Chief Business Officer Alex Norström. The pair, who are also currently copresidents, will transition into their new jobs on Jan. 1 and will report to Ek.

Spotify said in a press release that the move “formalizes" how Spotify has been operating since 2023, with Söderström and Norström largely leading strategic development and operational execution.

Ek said that he had already “turned over a large part of the day-to-day management and strategic direction” to the pair.

“This change simply matches titles to how we already operate,” he said. As executive chairman, Ek said he will focus on Spotify's “long arc.”

In an online question and answer session following the announcement, Ek said his new role would not be a ceremonial one that investors with a “U.S. perspective” might expect.

In Europe, an executive chairman is typically “quite active in the business," and acts as a representative to “certain stakeholders” such as governments, he said.

Ek said he still sees growth opportunities, including a “huge part of the world that’s really not accustomed to streaming” stretching from Asia to Africa, as well as new technology including artificial intelligence.

“I’m gonna keep pushing for us to look around the corner, stay focused on the long term,” he said.

Since Ek founded Spotify about two decades ago, the platform's rise has helped transformed the music business and paved the way for modern streaming. Spotify now has more than 700 million subscribers and a library of more than 100 million songs, 7 million podcast titles and 350,000 audiobooks.

Spotify shares, which have doubled in the past year, fell more than 3% in premarket trading after the announcement.