Daniel Ek

Daniel Ek

1983–present · Stockholm, Sweden

Founding Spotify and beating piracy by building something better than piracy, then spending two decades arguing that happiness trails impact and that a company only becomes great when it is true to who its founder actually is

Spotify monthly active users 761 million (Q1 2026, reported 28 Apr 2026)
Spotify Premium subscribers 293 million (Q1 2026)
Paid to the music industry ~$11B in 2025; ~$70B lifetime (Loud & Clear, Mar 2026)
Role at Spotify CEO 2006 to 2025; Executive Chairman from 1 Jan 2026
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