Alex Norstr\u00f6m doesn\u2019t want you to think of Spotify<\/a> as a tech giant. He wants you to think of it as \u201ca big, big startup that\u2019s growing.\u201d<\/p>\n This mindset from Spotify\u2019s incoming co-CEO might seem incongruous for a company whose 276 million<\/a> paying customers account for 3% of the world\u2019s population, and which in 2024 achieved its first full year of profitability.<\/a><\/p>\n But it speaks to the ambition (and opportunity) that Norstr\u00f6m sees ahead as he prepares to take the helm alongside Gustav S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m<\/strong> on January 1, 2026.<\/p>\n The leadership transition, announced on Tuesday (September 30), will see founder Daniel Ek<\/a><\/strong> step back from day-to-day operations after nearly two decades as CEO, assuming the role of Executive Chairman. He explained the strategy behind the move on a call with analysts yesterday, which you can read about here<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Norstr\u00f6m, who\u2019s spent 15 years at Spotify and currently serves as co-President and Chief Business Officer, it represents both continuity and change.<\/p>\n \u201cThe change you\u2019re seeing is gradual,\u201d Norstr\u00f6m tells MBW in an exclusive interview the morning after the announcement.<\/p>\n He and S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m have already been running much of Spotify\u2019s day-to-day operations for nearly three years, with Ek increasingly taking on what Norstr\u00f6m calls \u201ca coaching role.\u201d<\/p>\n The timing of the transition coincides with what Norstr\u00f6m describes as Spotify hitting \u201cevery mark\u201d \u2013 citing user growth, subscriber adoption, and increased payouts to \u201cartists, podcasters, [and] authors.\u201d<\/p>\n Spotify\u2019s Premium Subscriber base (of 276m) <\/a>at the close of Q2 was up by\u00a0+8 million<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0net subs on the\u00a0268 million<\/strong> that the firm counted at the end of the prior quarter (Q1 2025). Spotify\u2019s total Monthly Active Users, which combine paying users and ad-supported users, grew\u00a011%<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0year over year to\u00a0696 million<\/strong>. Spotify paid out<\/a> $10 billion<\/strong> to the music industry in 2024 \u2013 a full $1bn more than in 2023.<\/p>\n The company is also \u201cshipping\u201d products at a pace that pleases the executive, pointing to recent launches including lossless audio<\/a> (arriving as a Premium feature rather than part of a super-premium tier), direct messaging<\/a> capabilities within the app, and playlist mixing tools.<\/a><\/p>\n But perhaps most striking is Norstr\u00f6m\u2019s vision for where Spotify goes next.<\/p>\n While acknowledging that reaching 99%<\/strong> of the world\u2019s population paying for its services might be \u201ccrazy,\u201d he doesn\u2019t think 10-15% is unimaginable.<\/p>\n That would translate to around a billion<\/strong> subscribers, a number he explicitly references as a longer-term goal.<\/p>\n The growth, he believes, will come from markets like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and countries within Africa, regions where streaming adoption is still nascent but accelerating rapidly. He compares the current opportunity to \u201cthe beginning of LATAM,\u201d when Spotify began its explosive growth across Latin America.<\/p>\n \u201cI want people to feel a sense of wonder when they come to Spotify.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Norstr\u00f6m<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cMusic is something wonderful. Almost everyone in the world has a relationship to it, sometimes even before they get exposed to language,\u201d Norstr\u00f6m says. \u201cCall me crazy, but I believe this is the biggest opportunity there is in consumer products.\u201d<\/p>\n As he and S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m prepare to officially take the reins, he outlines his long-term vision for Spotify: \u201cI want people to feel a sense of wonder when they come to Spotify, which they\u2019re doing now already, but even more,\u201d he tells us. \u201cI want us to address that massive opportunity in front of us: getting closer to a billion subscribers\u201d.<\/p>\n Here, Norstr\u00f6m discusses his and S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m\u2019s objectives as Spotify\u2019s incoming co-CEOs, covering topics such as subscriber adoption, pricing strategy, geographic growth, Spotify\u2019s relationship with the music industry, and more.<\/p>\n What is at the top of your to-do list on day one as co-CEOs?<\/b><\/h6>\n First of all, I would say everything is going really well for us right now. We\u2019re hitting every mark on user growth and subscriber [acquisition]. And what\u2019s more is that we have, over the past five years, consistently increased engagement, which is a great proxy for people continuing to love Spotify.<\/p>\n We are taking market share. We\u2019re not losing a lot of users when we raise prices. We are increasing the payouts to the music industry, to artists, to podcasters, to authors, and so on. So we\u2019re really in a really good position.<\/p>\n And then if you think about, what our focus is going forward, you can think about it in two ways. One is, we will relentlessly keep adding value back to subscribers and users. We will push the boundaries when it comes to innovation, and we will continue to work really hard, keep our bar really high, and try to deliver.<\/p>\n \u201cDo I think we\u2019re going to get to 99% of the world\u2019s population? Maybe not. That\u2019s crazy. But it\u2019s not so unimaginable to get to 10% or 15%.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We have been shipping more than we\u2019ve shipped in a long, long while. We just improved our free tier. We just launched messages inside Spotify. We introduced the playlist mixing tools, lossless, interactive DJ, and other new AI features. Video has been scaling. We\u2019ve launched audiobooks in more markets. The list just goes on and on. So I\u2019m super pleased about the pace of shipping [products], because it\u2019s about the same thing: it\u2019s adding value back. That\u2019s important to me.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s a further, longer outlook. I look at the growth opportunity of Spotify. There\u2019s still so much left. Think about the subscriber count we have today \u2013 we touch roughly 3% of the world\u2019s population.<\/p>\n Do I think we\u2019re going to get to 99% of the world\u2019s population? Maybe not. That\u2019s crazy. But it\u2019s not so unimaginable to get to 10% or 15%. So we think there\u2019s still lots and lots of growth to be had, and we\u2019re lucky to have music as our core business because it really has a very large TAM [total addressable market].<\/p>\n Could you explain to our readers<\/b> how you and Gustav S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m [<\/strong><\/b>pictured inset] will split decision-making<\/b> going forward as Co-CEOs<\/b>\u2026<\/h6>\n Of course. First of all, both of us have been at Spotify for a decade and a half. We both worked really closely with Daniel for a long, long time. We have spent a lot of time talking to each other every day for 15 years, and have been pushed to gradually take on more responsibility and be more accountable for Spotify. And so the change you\u2019re seeing is gradual.<\/p>\n And more recently \u2013 we\u2019re talking two and a half, almost three years ago now \u2013 Daniel gave us even more responsibility to take on more of the day-to-day and overseeing strategy and operations of Spotify.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do have our different domains and specialties, but what\u2019s important is that we address everything together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And in that moment, we decided to work together, almost joined at the hip, to address Spotify\u2019s opportunities and problems. We have assembled an integrated team to develop new tools that will lead the company, and the results have been substantial. The impact has been massive over the last two to three years.<\/p>\n And to return to your question, the split there on the surface is obvious: Gustav\u2019s domain expertise lies within product and technology. Mine is within subscribers on the consumer end, of course, including advertising and content. I oversee our renewals, interface with the music industry and artists, and manage the other verticals as well. Also, the marketing and markets.<\/p>\n We do have our different domains and specialties, but what\u2019s important is that we address everything together, and we also know each other\u2019s areas. There is a lot of respect for each other\u2019s domain expertise. Gustav is deeply interested in business. I like to think of myself as a product guy as well. So, we gain more brain capacity by combining our individual capacities, integrating each other into a single role and responsibility set.<\/p>\n The announcement mentioned that Daniel Ek will still determine capital allocation in his new role as Executive Chairman. Does that mean that major M&A decisions would still sit with him, or would that be a joint decision-making process between you and Gustav in collaboration with Daniel? How would that work?<\/b><\/h6>\n Daniel has been talking a lot about him taking on the coaching role and being more of a coach than a player. And to be honest with you, he\u2019s been doing that role really, really well.<\/p>\n And as he transitions into Executive Chairman, he will focus on the long arc of the company.<\/p>\n And again, that is something that we enjoy dealing with together. And as far as the role of coach here, obviously we take that very seriously. And we think that is largely how we have operated in the past few years already. So there should be no big surprises.<\/p>\n You highlighted a statistic about 3% of the world\u2019s population paying for Spotify, and you said reaching 10-15% of the world\u2019s population as paying subscribers is \u201cnot unimaginable\u201d \u2013 what needs to happen to get there?<\/b><\/h6>\n The most important thing here is that music is something wonderful. Almost everyone in the world has a relationship to it \u2013 sometimes even before they get exposed to language. And so it\u2019s our job to figure out how to bring artists\u2019 work to users anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n So call me crazy, but I believe this is the biggest opportunity there is in consumer products, and you can see that in how much people engage with art and music.<\/p>\n So I just think the opportunity is very large. And for us, we are in a good place. We\u2019re going to continue to add value and make sure we solve problems for users and subscribers.<\/p>\n On yesterday\u2019s call with analysts, You compared current growth opportunities to \u201cthe beginning of LATAM\u201d \u2013 what specifically reminds you of that period?<\/b><\/h6>\n That\u2019s a good question. It\u2019s obvious that the US and Western Europe are further along in their development of adopting streaming services and subscriptions. But there\u2019s a lot of growth still to be had in these regions.<\/p>\n Now LATAM, which you\u2019re asking about, is not as far along. So we\u2019re seeing lots of growth there in and around Mexico and Brazil [for example].<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fascinating to see the significant growth emerging from those regions, and I think it\u2019ll follow in the footsteps of Latin America, eventually also reaching Western Europe and the US.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I also mentioned yesterday that we\u2019re seeing a lot of growth coming out of India. India is a fantastic country that\u2019s growing its GDP by 8% year over year, and it\u2019s going to continue to do that for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a very populous nation of 1.4 billion<\/strong> people. In fact, I think it\u2019s larger now than China. Additionally, you have Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as Southeast Asia, which continues to grow. A lot of these markets are very bottom-heavy in their population pyramid, which means that they have a lot of young users, and they\u2019re just about taking up streaming products like ours.<\/p>\n \u00a0It\u2019s fascinating to see the significant growth emerging from those regions, and I think it\u2019ll follow in the footsteps of Latin America, eventually also reaching [the adoption levels of] Western Europe and the US.<\/p>\n You specifically mentioned India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and markets within Africa as growth opportunities. But these are also some of the lowest ARPU markets. How do you balance volume growth in these regions with maintaining and driving that global profitability Daniel Ek talked about achieving for the first time last year?<\/b><\/h6>\n We consider every market specifically and how to address the opportunities there.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s obvious that our ARPU is different around the world, but we look at each market differently, not just when it comes to how to package and price a product, but obviously also when it comes to content and how to do marketing, and so on.<\/p>\n And we\u2019re equally happy when there\u2019s growth in India as well as LATAM, or any market in Europe or the US.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a good question that\u2019s been asked many times. We have a very high bar at Spotify when it comes to shipping products, and we\u2019re working really hard to achieve that when it comes to add-ons and different types of additional products to our current portfolio set.<\/p>\n And the way to think about it is if you take a peek at what\u2019s going on in audiobooks for Spotify. Three months ago we launched an add-on for audiobooks [Audiobooks +<\/a>].<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a very high bar at Spotify when it comes to shipping products, and we\u2019re working really hard to achieve that when it comes to add-ons and different types of additional products to our current portfolio set.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n You can imagine the same recipe for music, or similar recipe, where you basically have your free product, you have a Premium product, and you have add-ons on top of that.<\/p>\n Right now, it\u2019s one in audiobooks. Maybe there will be more. And right now, we\u2019re seeing a very good natural segmentation and self-selection into these different products within that vertical. And it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n And for music, there are a lot of different segments of people and audiences. Looking long into the future, it\u2019s almost like a layer of mosaic on top of this base layer that we\u2019ve had for so many years.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll keep investing in more value there. But on top of this, we will look at all the different segments and try to build products and add-ons.<\/p>\n We obviously can\u2019t speak to the competition, but Gustav and I both still view Spotify as a startup \u2013 a big, big startup that\u2019s growing. And our focus is, again, relentlessly to keep adding value and solving problems for subscribers and users. That\u2019s how we will win. That\u2019s how we will continue to grow and achieve a good position in the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, we keep an eye on competition and what\u2019s going on in the market \u2013 but we definitely focus more on ourselves and how we differentiate, and how we keep solving problems for users.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Obviously, we keep an eye on competition and what\u2019s going on in the market \u2013 but we definitely focus more on ourselves and how we differentiate, and how we keep solving problems for users.<\/p>\n I mean, it\u2019s pretty insane. We\u2019ve talked about the 3% of the world\u2019s population subscribing to Spotify, but there\u2019s also a number that we haven\u2019t shared that much, and that\u2019s that 90%<\/strong> of users say that Spotify is essential to their daily life. That\u2019s insane to think about.<\/p>\n At every paradigm shift, the door opens up for massive growth and a lot of new opportunities. Gustav and I have both lived through a couple of these, starting with the dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and continuing through to Web 2.0, which shaped the industry over the last 10 years. And then the smartphone came along as a big shift, [followed by] social media, and the globalization of all these services as well.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth of us are very clear-eyed on the fact that AI is the biggest shift that we have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And now we\u2019re entering the age of AI. Both of us are very clear-eyed on the fact that this is the biggest shift that we have ever seen.<\/p>\n And being the consumer business we are today, with the footprint we have today, the potential is just immense for us. So we\u2019re both very, very excited about what\u2019s coming, both on the technology side, but as well as, obviously, the opportunity for doing more business and solving more problems for users, and also supporting the growth of the music industry.<\/p>\n Like you said, we\u2019ve just completed renewals with UMG, Sony, Warner, Merlin, and the list goes on. You\u2019ve written about it.<\/p>\n And the underlying philosophy we have in those renewals is very basic: we view the music industry\u2019s problems as our own today. Because in the end, we\u2019re tied to each other. Like I\u2019ve said many times before, the current relationships are just better than they\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n One of the things that Daniel has pushed us to learn and get more exposure to in the past three years is to be able to handle multiple stakeholders, and we have.<\/p>\n We have really engaged beyond the stakeholders that we\u2019ve been addressing before. So we have been part of analyst calls. I have personally spent a lot of time in the music industry the past three years, leading our renewal efforts.<\/p>\n Gustav has spent time on the technology side; I spend time on the business side. The training wheels have been on, but they\u2019re coming off now, and we believe we are very well-positioned to continue doing more of what we have done.<\/p>\n Music Business Worldwide<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicbusinessworldwide.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Norstr\u00f6m doesn\u2019t want you to think of Spotify as a tech giant. He wants you to think of it as \u201ca big, big startup that\u2019s growing.\u201d This mindset from Spotify\u2019s incoming co-CEO might seem incongruous for a company whose 276 million paying customers account for 3% of the world\u2019s population, and which in 2024 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2065190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2065189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Alex-Norstrom-has-a-long-to-do-list-as-Spotifys-new-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2065189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2065191,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065189\/revisions\/2065191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2065190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2065189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2065189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2065189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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You mentioned earlier in the call about driving value for listeners in terms of the products available via Spotify. There has been a lot of talk around \u2018SUPER PREMIUM<\/a>\u2018 tiers this year. How much of an opportunity do you see in Spotify\u2019s subscription offerings becoming \u2018segmented\u2019 with higher-priced tiers on top of the current Premium offering, or do you see a bigger opportunity in more frequent price increases of your existing tiers?<\/b><\/h6>\n
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Daniel Ek wrote that Spotify has \u201chelped reshape an industry that is not only growing again, but reaching new heights.\u201d But you\u2019re also competing with tech giants like Apple<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>, and YouTube<\/a> for listeners\u2019 and viewers\u2019 attention. How do you maintain Spotify\u2019s positioning in the market?<\/b><\/h6>\n
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Gustav said on the call that his top three priorities are all AI-related and compared AI to the mobile shift. I\u2019m curious, from a business perspective, what\u2019s the biggest opportunity and what\u2019s the biggest risk in regards to AI for Spotify?<\/b><\/h6>\n
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On that point, in terms of the music industry, you mentioned the renewals that you\u2019ve completed this year with Universal<\/a>, Warner<\/a>, Sony<\/a>, Kobalt<\/a>, Merlin<\/a>. Could you give us an update on Spotify\u2019s business development momentum and relationship with the wider music industry today?<\/b><\/h6>\n
Daniel wrote something in his leaving note that got me thinking about Spotify\u2019s positioning in the business of music and tech but also in the public space. He said \u201call eyes (and ears) are on us\u201d. You\u2019re a publicly traded company, and your financial and user metrics are heavily scrutinized. You\u2019re also a prominent consumer product that acts as a conduit for creators to distribute their music, audiobooks, and podcasts to listeners. How do you view your and Gustav\u2019s roles as leaders of Spotify in balancing the needs of those different stakeholders \u2013 investors, creators, and consumers?<\/b><\/h6>\n
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