Spotify founder Ek to step down as CEO to focus on long-term strategy

(Adds the first names that were dropped in paragraph 15)

Written by Jaspreet Singh and SuPantha Mukherjee

(Reuters)-The Swedish broadcasting company said on Tuesday that it adopts a new new structure in its strategy to support competitors and support its profit margin.

The EK billionaire, who built Spotify in the leader of the rare global consumer technology from the region, will retreat from daily works where the company draws its plan to stay in the forefront of the music display from YouTube, Apple and Amazon.

“Ek leaves the role of the CEO in a high observation, as large shoes are filled with righteous executives.” The shares of the United States in Spotify decreased about 5 % after obtaining 63 % this year.

EK, a prominent technical businessman in Europe, will focus on allocating capital and long -term strategy as an executive president in what the company described as a European -style role.

“I will be more than the participation of more than a typical American president. So think about it just like moving from player to coach,” said EK, who has been in the company’s board of directors since 2008.

Spotify remains a clear market pioneer with approximately 700 million users per month and more than 100 million paths, ahead of about 90 million subscribers in Apple Music.

But it faces a competition from the integrated catalog of the video in YouTube Music and the Amazon Music offers associated with music, whose competitors give distinct advantages in some markets.

Despite Spotify’s dominance, the pressure on profit margins continued with the artists pushing higher batches and the advertising -backed level expands.

Global revenues of recorded music increased by 4.8 % to $ 29.6 billion in 2024. Broadcast exceeded $ 20 billion for the first time and the subscription flow constituted more than half of it, according to the IFPI global music report.

From starting to the giant

Founded in 2006, Spotify its headquarters in Stockholm has helped to transform the music industry that has shrunk for years due to pirate and the fall of CDs. She first appeared in the United States in 2011 when industry revenues fell.

However, the company reported only its first annual profit in 2024, after a large number of price increases and cost reduction efforts.

The EK billionaire is often referred to as a champion of Europe’s ability to produce companies that can compete with the United States and the Asian technology giants.

Gustav SodersStrom, chief product and technology official, is honored by the global technology and product development strategy, while Alex Norstrom, as the chief business official, subscribers and advertising companies, along with music, podcasts and audio books.

They will also submit reports to EK, which is also working on the Board of Directors. The three executives have worked together for a decade and a half.

“Norsterom is very interested in knowing the product, and I am very interested in business.” “So we manage this as one team.

Many prominent companies such as OCCLE and Netflix have adopted a co -model to better manage their operations because they become more complex and diverse global.

The CO-CEO model, which has become common, has been doubtful to create unclear lines of power.

“The Big Unknown is the reason why Spotify needs an executive president and executive president because this conjures up the idea that a lot of chefs spoil the broth,” said Dan Coatsworth, AJ Bell investment analyst, said.

(Participate in the coverage of Supantha Mukherje in Stockholm, Jaspreet Singh and Akash Srram in Bangaluru; Liberation by Arun Koyyur)