Why Spotify Co-Founder Daniel Ek Is Stepping Down as CEO

Spotify founder Daniel Ek shifts focus to defence and health tech

When Daniel Ek founded Spotify (SPOT.N) in 2006, a viable music product was a "moon shot." The global music industry was struggling with years of declining sales, online music piracy was rampant, and services like Apple's (AAPL.O) iTunes were pricey. Ek, then a 23-year-old coder, believed if access to music was as easy as turning on a tap - in a way that was legal and fair to artists - users would come. The key was streaming, not downloads, an i…

The rise of the bro co-CEO

Yesterday, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek announced that he’ll be stepping down in the new year. Two of his top executives, Gustav Söderström, chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, chief business officer, will take over as co-CEOs in his place. With that news, the music streamer became the third company to choose the co-CEO route within the space of just over a week. A few days earlier, on Sept. 29, Comcast said that its si…

Why Spotify Co-Founder Daniel Ek Is Stepping Down as CEO

The streaming giant’s chief business officer and chief product and technology officer will become co-CEOs.

Where Spotify may be headed after Daniel Ek’s exit as CEO

When Spotify launched in 2006, it was little more than a bold idea from a Swedish startup that asked what if people streamed music instead of owning it. Nearly twenty years later, that gamble has become a cultural shift. Today, Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service with more than half a billion users and over 230 million subscribers. For many, it is not just an app but the soundtrack of daily life.Its rise has been shaped by inn…