This morning (September 30), Spotify revealed that its founder and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Ek, is stepping back from the CEO role and will transition to Executive Chairman.
The company has named Gustav Söderström (co-President and Chief Product and Technology Officer) and Alex Norström (co-President and Chief Business Officer) as its new co-Chief Executive Officers.
According to the announcement, Spotify’s new Co-CEOs will report to Daniel Ek and will also serve on the company’s Board of Directors, subject to shareholder approval.
These changes will all be effective January 1, 2026.
In a memo sent to employees today, which you can read in full here, Ek confirmed that “with full confidence in Gustav and Alex, on January 1, 2026, I will move to Executive Chairman”.
He also said that “Alex and Gustav have clearly demonstrated that, with the support of this remarkable team, they are readytoleadSpotify as co-CEOs.”
The three execs, Ek, Söderström, and Norström, participated in a Q&A with analysts on Tuesday to explain the strategic thinking behind the leadership transition.
MBW listened in on the call. Here’s what stood out…
1. Why Now? Daniel Ek says that Söderström and Norström “are truly delivering exceptionally well already.”
When asked why now was the right time for the leadership change, Ek explained that the decision was driven by the strong performance of Söderström and Norström rather than any external pressures.
“It’s less a function of really anything except the fact that Alex and Gustav are truly delivering exceptionally well already,” Ek said. “And I feel like this is a natural evolution of what we already do as a leadership team.”
Ek noted that since taking over as co-Presidents in 2023, the two executives “have really stepped up in a material way, taking much of the day-to-day responsibilities”.
“As they’ve been growing, I’ve been handing them more and more of the tasks,” he added. “I feel like this is actually more of a natural reflection of how the company actually works and operates already.”
“This is a natural evolution of what we already do as a leadership team.”
Ek described his own role evolution as moving “from being more of a player to more of a coach type model”, adding that he “will work with Gustav and Alex on the big strategic decisions that we face in the long arc of the company”.
Before joining the Company in 2009, Söderström was director of product and business development for Yahoo! Mobile from 2006 to 2009.
In 2003, founded Kenet Works, a company that developed community software for mobile phones and served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer until it was acquired by Yahoo! in 2006. Söderström is a startup seed investor and founder of 13th Lab (acquired by Facebook’s Oculus).
Norström, meanwhile, was Chief New Business Officer at King.com Ltd prior to joining Spotify in 2011. He was a member of the board of directors of Circle from 2016 through December 2019.
He was previously Spotify’s Chief Freemium Business Officer and, prior to that, the company’s Chief Premium Business Officer, Vice President of Growth, and Vice President of Subscriptions.
2. Ek says he will be “more involved than a typical US chairman” and will retain an office with the co-CEOs
Addressing questions about what his Executive Chairman role would entail, Ek clarified that it would be more active than what investors might expect from a typical US-style chairman.
“I think most investors may come at it from a US perspective, where it’s mostly a ceremonial role,” Ek said. “In Europe, it isn’t. In fact, a chairman is someone who’s quite active in the business; sometimes even represents the business to different stakeholders, like, for instance, governments or key partners.”
“We wanted to make it clear that this role is more in line with the European one than American one,” he explained.
Ek emphasized that the “executive” part of the title was significant: “I am still retaining an office here with Gustav and Alex, working on various types of problems with them.”
However, he was clear about the power structure: “I do want to make it clear, this is really they’re in charge. They’re the ones making the decision, but I will be there as a friend, a coach, a cheerleader, whatever I’m needed to do for the day in making this happen.”
3. Ek says Spotify is “early on this journey” and pointed to massive geographical opportunities ahead
Looking toward the company’s long-term strategy, Ek remained bullish on Spotify’s future growth potential.
“I still believe, with every fiber of my being, that we’re early on this journey,” Ek said. “And when you sort of look out and you sort of see what’s still left on the table for Spotify, there’s some amazing opportunities.”
“I still believe, with every fiber of my being, that we’re early on this journey.”
He highlighted several key growth areas: “There’s the next generation of consumers that are now coming online in a very big way. We have a huge part of the world that still isn’t really accustomed to streaming as much as we take it for granted today, with everything from Asia to Africa, [which have] incredibly populous regions and very young demographics.”
Ek also pointed to technological advancement as a driver: “We have new technology advancements, new form factors, AI, all of these other things.”
He invoked a Bill Gates quote to frame his thinking: “People tend to overestimate the short term and underestimate the long term, and that’s certainly one of the things that Alex, Gustav and I talk a lot about.”
“I’m gonna keep pushing for us to look around the corner, stay focused on the long term, and keep showing up every day and make gradual improvements, because that’s long term what leads to the best results,” Ek added.
4. On Spotify’s success to date, Ek said: “Overnight success doesn’t happen overnight”
When asked about key initiatives to drive long-term growth, Ek reflected on the company’s two-decade journey.
“As I reflect back on two decades of Spotify, there’s a few phrasings that come to mind,” Ek said.
“One of them is that overnight success doesn’t happen overnight. It is actually just sort of waking up, going to work, work really hard, and making gradual improvements over 20 years. That is the results of the company that we’re sitting here today with.”
He emphasized that this approach would continue: “Yeah, I’m gonna keep pushing for us to look around the corner, stay focused on the long term, and keep showing up every day and make gradual improvements, because that’s long term what leads to the best results and that I know is the product of what Spotify is today.”
5. Ek says he will bring an “outside in perspective” from his work with other companies
Discussing how he would be most beneficial in his new role, Ek pointed to the value of external perspectives.
“One of the sort of future-looking aspects is also the outside-in perspective,” Ek said. “One of the amazing things that I feel now having been involved with companies like Neko Health, is that you do get a different perspective about different operating environments, different cultures.”
He acknowledged both the strengths and potential limitations of Spotify’s long-tenured team: “We have a team of extremely tenured [employees]. A lot of folks have been here for 10, 15 years and really grown up with the company.
“I think that is 99% a superpower that we have here as a company. And Spotify would not have been what it is today if it weren’t for all the ‘Spotifiers’ past and present that helped build the company into what it is today.”
“But with all that said,” he continued, “one of the real things as well is it is important to be able to draw on inspiration from the outside.”
Ek explained that one of his “new superpowers is that I do get to sit on the inside on some of the other businesses as well that I’m helping build, and seeing what it truly is like to start a new startup, for instance, in 2025 and what are some of the tools and decisions you can make, and how can that impact Spotify in a positive way”.
He added: “We’ve already seen some of those lessons, and are applying them now at Spotify.”
6. Alex Norström says Spotify has “never been more excited than we are right now” and pointed to the company serving just 3% of the world’s population
When asked what they were most excited about in the next chapter, Norström emphasized the company’s momentum and untapped potential.
“We can’t be more excited than we are right now,” Norström said. “It’s just with so much momentum. We’ve been shipping at an increasingly higher pace.”
He cited recent achievements: “You saw us sort of see the completion of renewals happen this year. We rolled out audiobooks to more markets. We just improved the free tier, which is going well. We shipped messaging, we shipped mixing tools, lossless, DJ, and on it goes, and we’ll continue to ship even more things.”
Norström put Spotify’s current scale in perspective: “We’re lucky that we started with music, because planet Earth has some relationship with music. And today, at Spotify, we see 3% of the world’s population paying us on a recurring basis for product that they’re loving.”
According to Spotify’s Q2 2025 earnings report, the platform saw its global Premium Subscriber base grow to 276 million paying users in the three months ended June 30, up by +8 million net subs versus 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.
Looking ahead, he said: “It’s not unimaginable that we’ll be at 10%, 15% [of the world’s population paying for Spotify].”
7. Gustav Söderström says AI represents “the most exciting time” for product development “in probably 15 to 20 years”
Asked about his priorities and what excited him most, Söderström focused on artificial intelligence and technological transformation.
“We’re in the middle of a macro wind called AI. There are better recommendations, more personalization, but we also think it’s going to eventually end up in new form factors,” Söderström said.
He added: “My top priority, my one, two and three, is to make sure that we capture this opportunity [of AI] and make it a tailwind [that] accelerates us.”
Söderström also drew parallels to Spotify’s previous major platform shift: “I’m a product guy and a technologist. I’ve been here long enough that I went through the previous big macro change, which was shifting [to] mobile, and that was certainly scary.
“All macro shifts are scary, but as a product person and technologist, [it] was the most exciting time I’ve ever had, until AI, because now everything is about to change again.”
“Back in the shift to mobile, we managed to position the company to actually [use] that macro wind as a tailwind instead of a headwind. And this is what we want to do now as well,” he explained.
Söderström concluded: “I think if you ask anyone in product, this is the most exciting time in probably 15 to 20 years, and then you want to be at a company that has massive impact. So that’s why I’m excited.”
