Spotify appoints two new co-CEOs as founder Daniel Ek transitions to chairman in Jan 2026

Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström were appointed as co-presidents in February 2023 and have been largely leading strategic development and operational execution.

Spotify founder Daniel Ek is stepping down as chief executive officer and will transition to the role of executive chairman on January 1, 2026, marking a significant change nearly two decades after launching the streaming service.

Spotify co-presidents Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström will be stepping in as co-CEOs. They will report to Ek and will also serve on the company’s Board of Directors.

What will be Daniel Ek's new role?

As Executive Chairman, Ek's role will more closely reflect a European Chairman setup, where he will oversee capital allocation, map the long term future of Spotify and continue to provide support and guidance to its senior team, the company said in a statement.

Söderström and Norström were appointed as co-presidents in February 2023 and have been largely leading strategic development and operational execution. Spotify stated this move formalises how the company has been operating since their appointment.

“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 statement "In my role as Executive Chairman, I will focus on the long arc of the company and keep the Board and our co-CEOs deeply connected through my engagement."

Woody Marshall, Lead Independent Director of Spotify's Board, also said the leadership transition has been in the works for several years.

"We have tremendous confidence in Alex and Gustav as they step into these roles. They each have more than fifteen years with the company and have been instrumental in driving our success and enabling Spotify to lead our industry," Marshall said in a statement.

"We are also thrilled that Daniel will be actively involved, giving Spotify both founder-led strategic stewardship and mentorship to the co-CEOs as the company continues to innovate and scale,” he added.

Read: How Spotify is rewiring for AI era to supercharge personalisation? Top executive explains

India a key market for Spotify 

Started in 2006, Spotify transformed the music industry by enabling consumers to stream a vast library of songs through a freemium model. Since then, it has grown into the world’s largest music streaming service and expanded into podcasts, videos, and audiobooks.

For the second quarter of 2025 (Q2 2025), Spotify reported 276 million paid subscribers and a total of 696 million monthly active users. The company also posted its first full year of profitability in 2024.

India is a key market for Spotify’s expansion strategy, with significant growth in its user base since entering in 2019. It is now one of the company’s top five markets by user base.

As of December, the service had around 57 million monthly active users and 91 million unique visitors in India, according to industry estimates. Other players in the market include YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and JioSaavn.

Read: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek: Confident India will be a substantial business in the long term

Who are Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström?

Söderström, who joined Spotify in 2009, also serves as chief product and technology officer. In this role, he is responsible for the company’s global product and technology strategy and oversees the product, design, data, and engineering teams. He has previously worked at Yahoo for three years.

Meanwhile, Norström joined Spotify in 2011 and serves as chief business officer, overseeing the company’s subscriber and advertising businesses as well as all licensed, distributed, and owned content across music, podcasts, and audiobooks.

"Nearly three years ago, when we stepped into our role as co-Presidents, we charged our teams with relentlessly focusing on building the best and most valuable experience available anywhere and that ambition hasn’t changed," Söderström and Norström said in a joint statement.

"While we bring different experiences and perspectives to the CEO role, we both have a strong bias to action and can’t wait to get started knowing that we will have Daniel’s full partnership and ongoing support” the statement added.

It's worth noting that video streaming giant Netflix also operates in a co-CEO structure, with Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters at the helm.

Read: Spotify rolls out new AI policies with music disclosures, spam filters, and stricter impersonation rules

Daniel Ek's other interests

In 2021, Ek co-founded the investment holding company Prima Materia with early Spotify investor Shakil Khan, aiming to support long-term, science- and technology-driven European companies tackling foundational challenges.

This initiative is part of Ek’s plan to invest €1 billion ($1.2 billion) of his personal fortune into deeptech "moonshots" across the continent over the next decade.

In June, Prima Materia led a €600 million (about $700 million) funding round in Helsing, a German defense startup that is developing artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled precision mass and autonomous systems.

The firm has also backed Neko Health, a Swedish preventive healthcare technology startup started by Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne in 2018. The company uses advanced sensors and AI to perform comprehensive, non-invasive full-body scans for the early detection of potential health issues.

As of January, Neko Health had completed 10,000 scans across Stockholm (Sweden) and London (United Kingdom). It also raised $260 million in Series B funding, led by Lightspeed with participation from General Catalyst, Atomico, Rosello, Lakestar, and OG Venture Partners.