Spotify founder Daniel Ek has announced he is stepping down as the company’s CEO, taking on the title of Executive Chairman instead, with current co-Presidents – Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström – becoming co-CEOs of the business.
Given Ek has been the corporate frontman of Spotify since the start, it’s a significant move, though in a statement Ek is keen to stress that “this change simply matches titles to how we already operate”.
In recent years, he says, “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”.
In a memo to staff, Ek seeks to answer the question “why switch job titles now?”, if Norström and Söderström have basically been running the company for some time. Because, he writes, “Alex and Gustav have clearly demonstrated that, with the support of this remarkable team, they are ready to lead Spotify as co-CEOs”.
The fact the job title change is happening as an artist boycott of Spotify – mainly prompted by Ek’s investments in weapons company Helsing – is gaining momentum is, of course, entirely coincidental.
Even though the streaming company did abandon its “ignore the boycotters” policy earlier this month when major label allied Massive Attack joined the boycott, putting out a statement insisting that Helsing is a totally separate company that only arms the good guys.
As Executive Chairman – rather than a Non-executive Chair – Ek will still have a hands-on role in running Spotify, just not the day-to-day operations. Which, by his own admission, has been the case for a while now anyway.
But maybe it will now fall to Norström and Söderström to post occasional slightly awkward videos to social media to try to convince everyone that Spotify is a cuddly creative business, and not an AI-addled tech monolith exploiting creatives to help fund its directors’ side projects in the arms trade.
An official statement from Spotify describes Ek’s new job description as follows: his role “will more closely reflect a European Chairman set-up, where he will determine capital allocation, map the long term future of Spotify and continue to provide support and guidance to its senior team”.
In his memo, Ek runs with this “we’re super European” theme, telling staff, “this approach reflects a European Chairman setup, which is quite different from a traditional US one that many of you might be familiar with”. This means, he says, “I will be more hands-on than some of my US peers who have a Chairman title”. So, basically, “I’ll still be in the building a lot and I’m still basically the boss”.
As well as getting the new CEO job titles, Norström and Söderström will also join the Spotify board, “subject to shareholder approval”. They say, “We’ve worked together a very long time and have seen Spotify through many different chapters”.
“Nearly three years ago, when we stepped into our role as co-Presidents”, they add, “we charged our teams with relentlessly focusing on building the best and most valuable experience available anywhere and that ambition hasn’t changed”.
“While we bring different experiences and perspectives to the CEO role”, they conclude, “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”.
All these changes will actually kick in at the start of next year.
