Early Life
Daniel Ek was born on February 21, 1983, in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in the Rågsved district. He showed an early interest in technology, creating websites and exploring open-source technologies at a young age. Ek graduated from IT-Gymnasiet in 2002 and briefly studied engineering at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology before dropping out to focus on his IT career.
Career
Ek's career began with creating websites and open-source technologies. He held senior roles at Tradera, which was later acquired by eBay, and was also CTO of the browser-based game and fashion community Stardoll. He founded Advertigo, an online advertising company, which he sold to TradeDoubler in 2006. Ek was briefly the CEO of μTorrent before its sale to BitTorrent in December 2006.
In 2006, Ek co-founded Spotify with Martin Lorentzon. The platform launched in 2008 and revolutionized music streaming, offering legal access to millions of songs. As of 2025, Spotify has over 713 million users and 281 million subscribers. Ek has served as CEO and overseen major milestones, including the company's initial public offering in 2018. In September 2025, Ek announced that he would be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, remaining as executive chairman to focus on capital allocation, long-term strategy, and regulatory efforts.
Key Business Strategies
Ek's strategic vision for Spotify centered on providing a better alternative to music piracy. His innovative business model offered free, ad-supported access to music, with premium subscriptions available to remove ads. This freemium model helped Spotify gain popularity with users and investors. Ek has also expanded Spotify's offerings into podcasts and audiobooks, further diversifying the platform and driving user engagement.
Philanthropy
Daniel Ek is involved in charitable giving. In 2016, he donated to Charity: Water, an organization dedicated to providing safe and clean water. In September 2021, Ek co-founded Prima Materia, a VC firm, and pledged to invest 1 billion euros in European technology.
