Daniel Ek, founder and chief executive officer of Spotify, attends the Cannes Lions 2016 on June 22, 2016 in Cannes, France.
Antoine Antoniol | Getty Images
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek will step down from his position and move to the role of executive chairman, the company said Tuesday.
Spotify shares dipped 6% following the announcement.
Ek, who co-founded the streaming platform in 2006, will be replaced by current co-presidents and longtime executives Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström as co-CEOs, the company said in a release. The transition will happen Jan. 1, 2026.
“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,” Ek said in a release. “This change simply matches titles to how we already operate.”
Ek said his new role will focus on steering the company’s long-term strategy and providing support to its senior team.
“It’s been an honor of a lifetime for me to be able to lead Spotify for close to 20 years,” Ek said in an X post.
Ek, who now has a net worth of $9.8 billion according to Forbes, has led the streaming giant to its current market cap of $140 billion.
Launched in 2008, Spotify now offers over 100 million tracks and boasts 696 million users and 276 million subscribers, up 11% and 12% respectively from a year ago.
The company said in its second-quarter earnings report that it expects to net add 14 million active users and five million net new Premium subscribers for the current quarter, even with the added price hike announced in August.
Spotify year-to-date stock chart.
In September, prices increased to 11.99 euros (US $14.08) from 10.99 euros (US $12.90) for premium subscribers in markets including South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, the company said in a release.
The company reported total revenue of 4.19 billion euros in the second quarter, which was up 10% year over year but missed LSEG estimate of 4.26 billion euros.
Questions were raised about its advertising business, with revenue down about 1% in the segment from a year ago.
Spotify has also been cracking down on artificial intelligence “slop” under the increasing threat of AI-generated music going viral.
The streaming juggernaut cut 75 million AI spam tracks in the past 12 months and rolled out updated policies to protect against harmful AI use, the company said in a release last week.
Spotify shares are up 54% year-to-date.
