Alex Norström doesn’t want you to think of Spotify as a tech giant. He wants you to think of it as “a big, big startup that’s growing.”
This mindset from Spotify’s incoming co-CEO might seem incongruous for a company whose 276 million paying customers account for 3% of the world’s population, and which in 2024 achieved its first full year of profitability.
But it speaks to the ambition (and opportunity) that Norström sees ahead as he prepares to take the helm alongside Gustav Söderström on January 1, 2026.
The leadership transition, announced on Tuesday (September 30), will see founder Daniel Ek step back from day-to-day operations after nearly two decades as CEO, assuming the role of Executive Chairman. He explained the strategy behind the move on a call with analysts yesterday, which you can read about here.
For Norström, who’s spent 15 years at Spotify and currently serves as co-President and Chief Business Officer, it represents both continuity and change.
“The change you’re seeing is gradual,” Norström tells MBW in an exclusive interview the morning after the announcement.
He and Söderström have already been running much of Spotify’s day-to-day operations for nearly three years, with Ek increasingly taking on what Norström calls “a coaching role.”
The timing of the transition coincides with what Norström describes as Spotify hitting “every mark” – citing user growth, subscriber adoption, and increased payouts to “artists, podcasters, [and] authors.”
Spotify’s Premium Subscriber base (of 276m) at the close of Q2 was up by+8 million net subs on the 268 million that the firm counted at the end of the prior quarter (Q1 2025). Spotify’s total Monthly Active Users, which combine paying users and ad-supported users, grew 11% year over year to 696 million. Spotify paid out $10 billion to the music industry in 2024 – a full $1bn more than in 2023.
The company is also “shipping” products at a pace that pleases the executive, pointing to recent launches including lossless audio (arriving as a Premium feature rather than part of a super-premium tier), direct messaging capabilities within the app, and playlist mixing tools.
But perhaps most striking is Norström’s vision for where Spotify goes next.
While acknowledging that reaching 99% of the world’s population paying for its services might be “crazy,” he doesn’t think 10-15% is unimaginable.
That would translate to around a billion subscribers, a number he explicitly references as a longer-term goal.
The growth, he believes, will come from markets like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and countries within Africa, regions where streaming adoption is still nascent but accelerating rapidly. He compares the current opportunity to “the beginning of LATAM,” when Spotify began its explosive growth across Latin America.
“I want people to feel a sense of wonder when they come to Spotify.”
Alex Norström
“Music is something wonderful. Almost everyone in the world has a relationship to it, sometimes even before they get exposed to language,” Norström says. “Call me crazy, but I believe this is the biggest opportunity there is in consumer products.”
As he and Söderström prepare to officially take the reins, he outlines his long-term vision for Spotify: “I want people to feel a sense of wonder when they come to Spotify, which they’re doing now already, but even more,” he tells us. “I want us to address that massive opportunity in front of us: getting closer to a billion subscribers”.
Here, Norström discusses his and Söderström’s objectives as Spotify’s incoming co-CEOs, covering topics such as subscriber adoption, pricing strategy, geographic growth, Spotify’s relationship with the music industry, and more.
Credit: Sir. David/Shutterstock
What is at the top of your to-do list on day one as co-CEOs?
First of all, I would say everything is going really well for us right now. We’re hitting every mark on user growth and subscriber [acquisition]. And what’s more is that we have, over the past five years, consistently increased engagement, which is a great proxy for people continuing to love Spotify.
We are taking market share. We’re not losing a lot of users when we raise prices. We are increasing the payouts to the music industry, to artists, to podcasters, to authors, and so on. So we’re really in a really good position.
And then if you think about, what our focus is going forward, you can think about it in two ways. One is, we will relentlessly keep adding value back to subscribers and users. We will push the boundaries when it comes to innovation, and we will continue to work really hard, keep our bar really high, and try to deliver.
“Do I think we’re going to get to 99% of the world’s population? Maybe not. That’s crazy. But it’s not so unimaginable to get to 10% or 15%.”
We have been shipping more than we’ve shipped in a long, long while. We just improved our free tier. We just launched messages inside Spotify. We introduced the playlist mixing tools, lossless, interactive DJ, and other new AI features. Video has been scaling. We’ve launched audiobooks in more markets. The list just goes on and on. So I’m super pleased about the pace of shipping [products], because it’s about the same thing: it’s adding value back. That’s important to me.
And then there’s a further, longer outlook. I look at the growth opportunity of Spotify. There’s still so much left. Think about the subscriber count we have today – we touch roughly 3% of the world’s population.
Do I think we’re going to get to 99% of the world’s population? Maybe not. That’s crazy. But it’s not so unimaginable to get to 10% or 15%. So we think there’s still lots and lots of growth to be had, and we’re lucky to have music as our core business because it really has a very large TAM [total addressable market].
Could you explain to our readers how you and Gustav Söderström [pictured inset] will split decision-making going forward as Co-CEOs…
Of course. First of all, both of us have been at Spotify for a decade and a half. We both worked really closely with Daniel for a long, long time. We have spent a lot of time talking to each other every day for 15 years, and have been pushed to gradually take on more responsibility and be more accountable for Spotify. And so the change you’re seeing is gradual.
And more recently – we’re talking two and a half, almost three years ago now – Daniel gave us even more responsibility to take on more of the day-to-day and overseeing strategy and operations of Spotify.
“We do have our different domains and specialties, but what’s important is that we address everything together.”
And in that moment, we decided to work together, almost joined at the hip, to address Spotify’s opportunities and problems. We have assembled an integrated team to develop new tools that will lead the company, and the results have been substantial. The impact has been massive over the last two to three years.
And to return to your question, the split there on the surface is obvious: Gustav’s domain expertise lies within product and technology. Mine is within subscribers on the consumer end, of course, including advertising and content. I oversee our renewals, interface with the music industry and artists, and manage the other verticals as well. Also, the marketing and markets.
We do have our different domains and specialties, but what’s important is that we address everything together, and we also know each other’s areas. There is a lot of respect for each other’s domain expertise. Gustav is deeply interested in business. I like to think of myself as a product guy as well. So, we gain more brain capacity by combining our individual capacities, integrating each other into a single role and responsibility set.
Spotify
The announcement mentioned that Daniel Ek will still determine capital allocation in his new role as Executive Chairman. Does that mean that major M&A decisions would still sit with him, or would that be a joint decision-making process between you and Gustav in collaboration with Daniel? How would that work?
Daniel has been talking a lot about him taking on the coaching role and being more of a coach than a player. And to be honest with you, he’s been doing that role really, really well.
And as he transitions into Executive Chairman, he will focus on the long arc of the company.
And again, that is something that we enjoy dealing with together. And as far as the role of coach here, obviously we take that very seriously. And we think that is largely how we have operated in the past few years already. So there should be no big surprises.
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You highlighted a statistic about 3% of the world’s population paying for Spotify, and you said reaching 10-15% of the world’s population as paying subscribers is “not unimaginable” – what needs to happen to get there?
The most important thing here is that music is something wonderful. Almost everyone in the world has a relationship to it – sometimes even before they get exposed to language. And so it’s our job to figure out how to bring artists’ work to users anywhere in the world.
So call me crazy, but I believe this is the biggest opportunity there is in consumer products, and you can see that in how much people engage with art and music.
So I just think the opportunity is very large. And for us, we are in a good place. We’re going to continue to add value and make sure we solve problems for users and subscribers.
On yesterday’s call with analysts, You compared current growth opportunities to “the beginning of LATAM” – what specifically reminds you of that period?
That’s a good question. It’s obvious that the US and Western Europe are further along in their development of adopting streaming services and subscriptions. But there’s a lot of growth still to be had in these regions.
Now LATAM, which you’re asking about, is not as far along. So we’re seeing lots of growth there in and around Mexico and Brazil [for example].
“It’s fascinating to see the significant growth emerging from those regions, and I think it’ll follow in the footsteps of Latin America, eventually also reaching Western Europe and the US.”
I also mentioned yesterday that we’re seeing a lot of growth coming out of India. India is a fantastic country that’s growing its GDP by 8% year over year, and it’s going to continue to do that for the foreseeable future.
It’s a very populous nation of 1.4 billion people. In fact, I think it’s larger now than China. Additionally, you have Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as Southeast Asia, which continues to grow. A lot of these markets are very bottom-heavy in their population pyramid, which means that they have a lot of young users, and they’re just about taking up streaming products like ours.
It’s fascinating to see the significant growth emerging from those regions, and I think it’ll follow in the footsteps of Latin America, eventually also reaching [the adoption levels of] Western Europe and the US.
You specifically mentioned India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and markets within Africa as growth opportunities. But these are also some of the lowest ARPU markets. How do you balance volume growth in these regions with maintaining and driving that global profitability Daniel Ek talked about achieving for the first time last year?
We consider every market specifically and how to address the opportunities there.
And it’s obvious that our ARPU is different around the world, but we look at each market differently, not just when it comes to how to package and price a product, but obviously also when it comes to content and how to do marketing, and so on.
And we’re equally happy when there’s growth in India as well as LATAM, or any market in Europe or the US.
You mentioned earlier in the call about driving value for listeners in terms of the products available via Spotify. There has been a lot of talk around ‘SUPER PREMIUM‘ tiers this year. How much of an opportunity do you see in Spotify’s subscription offerings becoming ‘segmented’ with higher-priced tiers on top of the current Premium offering, or do you see a bigger opportunity in more frequent price increases of your existing tiers?
It’s a good question that’s been asked many times. We have a very high bar at Spotify when it comes to shipping products, and we’re working really hard to achieve that when it comes to add-ons and different types of additional products to our current portfolio set.
And the way to think about it is if you take a peek at what’s going on in audiobooks for Spotify. Three months ago we launched an add-on for audiobooks [Audiobooks +].
“We have a very high bar at Spotify when it comes to shipping products, and we’re working really hard to achieve that when it comes to add-ons and different types of additional products to our current portfolio set.”
You can imagine the same recipe for music, or similar recipe, where you basically have your free product, you have a Premium product, and you have add-ons on top of that.
Right now, it’s one in audiobooks. Maybe there will be more. And right now, we’re seeing a very good natural segmentation and self-selection into these different products within that vertical. And it’s working.
And for music, there are a lot of different segments of people and audiences. Looking long into the future, it’s almost like a layer of mosaic on top of this base layer that we’ve had for so many years.
We’ll keep investing in more value there. But on top of this, we will look at all the different segments and try to build products and add-ons.
Daniel Ek wrote that Spotify has “helped reshape an industry that is not only growing again, but reaching new heights.” But you’re also competing with tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and YouTube for listeners’ and viewers’ attention. How do you maintain Spotify’s positioning in the market?
We obviously can’t speak to the competition, but Gustav and I both still view Spotify as a startup – a big, big startup that’s growing. And our focus is, again, relentlessly to keep adding value and solving problems for subscribers and users. That’s how we will win. That’s how we will continue to grow and achieve a good position in the industry.
“Obviously, we keep an eye on competition and what’s going on in the market – but we definitely focus more on ourselves and how we differentiate, and how we keep solving problems for users.”
Obviously, we keep an eye on competition and what’s going on in the market – but we definitely focus more on ourselves and how we differentiate, and how we keep solving problems for users.
I mean, it’s pretty insane. We’ve talked about the 3% of the world’s population subscribing to Spotify, but there’s also a number that we haven’t shared that much, and that’s that 90% of users say that Spotify is essential to their daily life. That’s insane to think about.
Gustav said on the call that his top three priorities are all AI-related and compared AI to the mobile shift. I’m curious, from a business perspective, what’s the biggest opportunity and what’s the biggest risk in regards to AI for Spotify?
At every paradigm shift, the door opens up for massive growth and a lot of new opportunities. Gustav and I have both lived through a couple of these, starting with the dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and continuing through to Web 2.0, which shaped the industry over the last 10 years. And then the smartphone came along as a big shift, [followed by] social media, and the globalization of all these services as well.
“Both of us are very clear-eyed on the fact that AI is the biggest shift that we have ever seen.”
And now we’re entering the age of AI. Both of us are very clear-eyed on the fact that this is the biggest shift that we have ever seen.
And being the consumer business we are today, with the footprint we have today, the potential is just immense for us. So we’re both very, very excited about what’s coming, both on the technology side, but as well as, obviously, the opportunity for doing more business and solving more problems for users, and also supporting the growth of the music industry.
On that point, in terms of the music industry, you mentioned the renewals that you’ve completed this year with Universal, Warner, Sony, Kobalt, Merlin. Could you give us an update on Spotify’s business development momentum and relationship with the wider music industry today?
Like you said, we’ve just completed renewals with UMG, Sony, Warner, Merlin, and the list goes on. You’ve written about it.
And the underlying philosophy we have in those renewals is very basic: we view the music industry’s problems as our own today. Because in the end, we’re tied to each other. Like I’ve said many times before, the current relationships are just better than they’ve ever been.
Daniel wrote something in his leaving note that got me thinking about Spotify’s positioning in the business of music and tech but also in the public space. He said “all eyes (and ears) are on us”. You’re a publicly traded company, and your financial and user metrics are heavily scrutinized. You’re also a prominent consumer product that acts as a conduit for creators to distribute their music, audiobooks, and podcasts to listeners. How do you view your and Gustav’s roles as leaders of Spotify in balancing the needs of those different stakeholders – investors, creators, and consumers?
One of the things that Daniel has pushed us to learn and get more exposure to in the past three years is to be able to handle multiple stakeholders, and we have.
We have really engaged beyond the stakeholders that we’ve been addressing before. So we have been part of analyst calls. I have personally spent a lot of time in the music industry the past three years, leading our renewal efforts.
Gustav has spent time on the technology side; I spend time on the business side. The training wheels have been on, but they’re coming off now, and we believe we are very well-positioned to continue doing more of what we have done.
