On Tuesday, Spotify announced that its founder, Daniel Ek, will be stepping down from his role as CEO to take on the position of executive chair.
The streaming giant based in Stockholm revealed that Ek will be succeeded by two executives who will serve as co-CEOs. These two, currently recognized for their shared vision, will assume their new roles starting January 1st.
In a press release, Spotify explained that this transition “formalizes” the operational dynamics that have been in place since 2023, with Söderström and Norström leading the company’s strategic development and operational execution.
Ek mentioned that he has already “taken charge of a significant portion of daily management and strategic direction.”
“This change aligns our titles with our existing operational structure,” he noted. Ek further stated that he would focus on Spotify’s “Long Arc” in his capacity as executive chair.
During an online Q&A following the announcement, Ek clarified that his new role is not the ceremonial position that investors with a “US perspective” might expect.
In Europe, executive chairs typically take on “very active roles in business” and represent “specific stakeholders,” including government entities.
Ek emphasized that there are still growth opportunities ahead, pointing to “significant portions of the global market yet to embrace streaming,” spanning from Asia to Africa, as well as advancements in technologies like artificial intelligence.
“We are committed to pushing ourselves to move forward and maintaining focus on long-term goals,” he stated.
Since Ek founded Spotify nearly 20 years ago, the platform’s rise has fundamentally changed the music industry, ushering in the era of modern streaming. Currently, Spotify boasts a library of over 700 million subscribers, more than 100 million songs, 7 million podcast titles, and 350,000 audiobooks.
The significant move was the latest part of founder Daniel Ek’s strategy to withdraw catalogs from Spotify in protest against his €600 million (£520 million) investment in military AI company Helsing.
In June, Ek’s venture capital firm, Prima Materia, spearheaded a funding round for the defense tech firm. Helsing’s software leverages AI to analyze battlefield sensor and weapon system data, facilitating real-time military decision-making. Additionally, they plan to develop their own military drone, the HX-2. Ek also serves as chairman of Helsing.
The band has announced their participation in Music for Genocide, a new initiative where over 400 artists and record labels are removing their music from Israeli streaming platforms.
In a statement, the band expressed:
In light of the substantial investments made by CEOs in companies unrelated to the initiative and engaged in producing military drones and AI technologies for fighter jets, the band has made separate requests to labels to remove their music from Spotify across all regions.
We believe that the historical effectiveness of artists’ actions during apartheid in South Africa serves as a precedent for addressing the war crimes and genocide currently perpetrated by the state of Israel, which underscores the moral duties of artists.
Moreover, the financial strain on artists has now combined with moral and ethical burdens, ultimately affecting the hard-earned income of fans and the creative endeavors of musicians.
Enough is enough.
Alternative methods must be explored.
になったんです。 English: The first thing you can do is to find the best one to do. A spokesperson for Spotify stated, “Spotify and Helsing are entirely separate entities.”
They further clarified that Helsing “has no involvement in Gaza” and that their operations “are focused on protecting Europe against threats from Ukraine.”
In a statement, Helsing asserted, “Currently, Helsing’s technology is not deployed in war zones outside of Ukraine, which is misleading.”
“Our technology is utilized in European countries for deterrence and to defend against Russian assaults on Ukraine.”
Australian psych-rock group King Gizzard and Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, alongside US alternative acts Deerhoof and Manchester’s Wu Lyf, have also joined in this effort.
In contrast to these bands, large-scale attacks cannot showcase their music on popular platforms like Bandcamp. After transitioning to Bandcamp, King Gizzard’s extensive catalog filled the top 27 spots on the site.
The No No Music for Genocide initiative features artists such as MJ Lenderman, Amyl and the Sniffers, Rina Sawayama, Jockstrap, Keiyaa, John Glacier, Erika de Casier, Smerz, and Wednesday. These artists have either modified their release territories or requested geo-blocking for their music.
Massive Attack has amplified their message through Instagram posts.
In 1991, the tragedy of apartheid violence in South Africa was alleviated from a distance through public boycotts, protests, and artists withdrawing their work. Complicity with such a regime was deemed unacceptable. The same principle applies to the state of Israeli atrocities in 2025. Many musicians are responding to the recently launched @Filmworkers4Palestine campaign, endorsed by 4,500 filmmakers, actors, industry workers, and institutions, supporting issues from @bds.movement, @NomusicForGenocide, and more. We urge all musicians to convert their grief, anger, and artistic contributions into consistent, rational, and impactful actions, aiming to end the suffering imposed on Palestinians for far too long.
Massive Attack, alongside Brian Eno, kNeecap, and Fontaine DC, have established a coalition of artists advocating for Palestinian rights, defending musicians against the threat of silence or the risk of career setbacks enforced by organizations such as the Israeli UK Lawfare Institute (UKLFI), which reportedly led Bob Billan in a controversial performance.
This coalition informed The Guardian: “This unified action aims to provide solidarity to artists who endure daily in the face of genocide, yet are apprehensive about using their platforms to voice their concerns due to the pervasive censorship in the industry and highly organized external legal pressures.”
A priestess can manipulate time and space in Meredith Mooring's debut novel.
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After an endlessly long January, it's finally time to see what sci-fi fun February has in store for us. This month's lineup is varied. I’m looking forward to the delightfully gory post-apocalyptic novels by Daniel Polanski and Paul E. Hardisty – I love a good story of a world in ruins – and also to Jasper Forde’s latest novel I'm going to take the time.My favorite author from a long time ago air incident Released in 2001. But at the top of my list to track is Meredith Mooring's work. red sight – Starring a blind shrine maiden who can manipulate time and space.
Nothing cheers me up like apocalyptic fun and frolic, and Hugo nominee Polanski's new work sounds like a corker. Manhattan is enveloped in a “toxic cloud” called Funk, which cuts it off from the rest of the world and mutates its population. For generations, when the first tourists in centuries arrived on the island, the survivors were focused only on survival.
This is sitting on my desk at home waiting for the moment I can read it at all.This is the first part of the climate emergency thriller. compulsionThe film sees Kweku Ashworth, born on a sailing ship as his parents escape disaster, set out to uncover what has brought the world into cataclysm. More apocalyptic catastrophes – great!
This is the sequel to Fforde's bestseller. shades of grayfollows “Something Happened'' 500 years ago and is set in a society where class is determined by visible colors. Eddie Russett and Jane Gray realize that this may not make any sense at all and may be unfair, so they investigate.
Unemployed and in debt, Jonathan Abernathy takes a job as a dream auditer, who taps into workers' dreams to relieve their fears and increase productivity. I loved this wonderfully wicked idea, and one reviewer described the novel as a “spiritual sibling.” Severance paybut it's even creepier,' and it's right up my street.
This sounds very strange. Plastic Girl Erin lives in a plastic world, where she sells a type of wearable technology called a smart body to her fellow plastic people. This allows people to fully immerse themselves in the virtual world as a refuge from real life and its wars. Author Elizabeth McCracken says it's “a profound, hilarious, chilling, strange, and immeasurably complex story about an imaginary universe that is also somehow our own broken world.” says.
I like the sound of Corinna, the heroine of Mooring's debut novel. She is a blind priestess who can manipulate time and space, but she has been raised to believe that she is weak and useless. When she takes a job as a navigator on an Imperial ship, she realizes that she is meant to be a weapon of the Empire. But Corinna's world changes forever when her ship is attacked by the infamous pirate Aster Harran.
“Michael Crichton meets Marvel” Venom” says the story's publisher, in which Anna, a refugee and genocide survivor, joins a team investigating “mysterious broadcasts and unknown horrors” as “humanity reels from disaster.” I love the drama promised here.
The setting, suggested by former sci-fi columnist Sally Addy as an Earth to watch in 2024, sees two Earths exist in parallel, and “shifters” can travel back and forth between them. Kanna and Lily are the same person, randomly moving between worlds, lives, and families, but needing to settle in one or the other. And how can we prepare our loved ones for the final disappearance?
Perhaps this debut novel isn't science fiction per se, but it's fiction about science, and I thought it would be interesting, so I wanted to mention it. Helen, a young physicist trying to save the planet, follows his mentor (who is embroiled in a sex scandal with a student) to an island laboratory that provides a safe haven for disgraced artists and scientists. It depicts the decision to go to
The Bone Hunters is loosely inspired by the life of 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning.
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Again, it's science fiction, not science fiction, and it's advertised as follows: essex snake meet ammonite, it's very hard to say no, at least for me. A loose depiction of the life of a pioneer 19thWritten by century-old paleontologist Mary Anning, the story is set in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England in 1824, when 24-year-old Ada Winters discovers a “rare fossil” on a cliff.
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