Is Spotify's CEO Change Just Musical Chairs for Investors?

Key Points

• Daniel Ek will remain Spotify's executive chairman with control over strategy and capital allocation, making this more of a title change than a real transition.

• The new co-CEOs, Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström, have been with Spotify for nine years or more and served as co-presidents since 2023, ensuring continuity rather than change.

• Despite protests from several household-name bands, Spotify's market dominance remains intact against rivals like Apple Music and YouTube Music.

• 10 stocks we like better than Spotify Technology ›

Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) just reshuffled its executive suite. Co-founder Daniel Ek stepped down from his longtime CEO position, under pressure from several big-name musicians.

The stock fell on the news, falling 4.2% on Tuesday. Will Spotify make significant policy changes under new leadership, or should you expect the new team of co-CEOs to base their plans around Ek's playbook?

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Let's take a look.

Image source: Getty Images.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

On January 1, Daniel Ek will hand the CEO title to Spotify's current pair of co-Presidents, Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström. In a personal letter to employees, Ek framed this update as a formalization of the existing management structure.

• As a "European-style executive chairman," Ek will essentially play the role of a traditional CEO in Spotify's strategy and capital allocation.

• Norström and Söderström will still report directly to Ek, and it's unclear how much more authority they will have in the new structure.

• In fact, Ek explained that it's more of a title change than anything else. "This change simply matches titles to how we already operate," he wrote.

In other words, not much will actually change. The incoming co-CEOs have held high-level executive titles at Spotify for 9 years or more. Ek will continue to steer the ship from a different type of captain's chair, assisted by the same lieutenants who have co-held that exact role since 2023.

Really, I'm not joking. Spotify should continue to run exactly as it has been running in recent years. Ek said so himself:

"For most of you, very little will change," he wrote. "Spotify has a strong leadership team in place and a solid plan we are executing against. That's not changing."

The wild, the innocent, and the Spotify shuffle

So why is Spotify reprinting its top-level business cards right now? Ek frames it as a simple title update. It's just time to give the co-Presidents a more appropriate title. He also wants to take some more time off to develop European start-ups in the tech sector.

But that's not the whole story.

Many popular artists have clashed with Spotify over the years, including marquee names such as Neil Young and Radiohead. The issues have ranged from Spotify's contract with controversial podcaster Joe Rogan to artist compensation rates. In recent months, the focus turned to Daniel Ek's investment in Helsing, a privately held German company that makes military drones controlled by artificial intelligence (AI).

Several bands pulled their catalogs from Spotify in protest of Ek's defense investment. Spotify didn't move a muscle at first, when the exits involved relatively small names like Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu.

But the situation escalated when microtonal rock legends King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard joined the protest in July. Two months later, the band holds the top 35 spots on smaller platform Bandcamp's top-selling charts. Sure, the Bandcamp launch involves a lot of free downloads and isn't a direct apples-to-apples comparison. King Gizzard still made that move in style, though.

Trip-hop giants Massive Attack stepped up two weeks ago. If nothing else, you may know their music from the intro sequence of House, M.D.. This final domino appears to have forced Ek to take action. Adding weight to the debate, Grammy-nominated electronic duo Sylvan Esso took down their Spotify account on September 30, while also releasing a brand-new song on other streaming platforms. That move sends a pretty clear protest message.

Should you buy Spotify on the dip?

So there's more to the CEO change than meets the press release. Ek chose to make a semantic change in Spotify's management structure rather than selling his Helsing investment. I don't think it will satisfy the objecting artists, or slow down the stream of new protests. Giving Ek more freedom to pursue non-Spotify interests is arguably the exact opposite of what the catalog-cutting artists were hoping for.

All told, Ek's title change won't really matter. I'm keeping an eye on the situation anyway, just in case artists on a higher level than King Gizzard and Massive Attack join the crescendo of drone-company complaints. What if billion-stream superstars show up? Would Daniel Ek sell his $700 million Helsing stake or leave Spotify if The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, or Sabrina Carpenter waved goodbye to the company?

For investors, Tuesday's 4.2% dip might be a buying opportunity if you believe in Spotify's moat. The smart money will focus on fundamentals -- subscriber growth and improving margins -- rather than artist protests that rarely dent the stock's long-term trajectory. Despite big-name rivals like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Music or Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) YouTube Music, Spotify remains the music-streaming service to beat.

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Anders Bylund has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, and Spotify Technology. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.