Spotify co-founder and chairman Martin Lorentzon has stepped down from his position at the the music streaming giant, with chief executive Daniel Ek taking his place.
Lorentzon will remain on the board, taking to Twitter to write: “I’m looking forward to another 10 years at Spotify as vice-chairman, going on walks with and talking to Daniel daily.”
The perennially lossmaking service, which has been striving to stabilise its financial health and reorganise itself, lost its chief revenue officer Jeff Levick, as well as its European sales head Jonathan Forster last month. Nearly every finance job listing on the site is currently in New York, pointing to a shift of financial operations from Stockholm to the US.
“In the US, it is extremely common to merge the CEO and chairman roles, so this gives you a good indication of where they are listing,” a source close to Spotify told the Financial Times. “The restructuring points to an Americanisation of the company.”
The news comes after a period of upheaval amongst the firm’s senior staff, with chief revenue officer Jeff Levick and global sales executive Jonathan Forster both having left the company this year.
Rumours have been circulating for months that Spotify is on the brink of a deal to purchase SoundCloud at an estimated fee of $1bn. In addition to access to SoundCloud’s user base, it is also thought that Spotify is looking to go public next year. Spotify and SoundCloud both declined to comment.
