Daniel Ek

music · technology · Swedish entrepreneur

Invented Spotify. Daniel Ek created Spotify in 2008 to let people stream music instantly instead of buying CDs or individual songs. His app lets you listen to almost any song in the world whenever you want.

Born in Sweden. Ek grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, and loved computers and technology from a young age. He started his first company when he was just a teenager.

Solved a problem. Before Spotify, people were sharing songs illegally on the internet. Ek realized that if music was easy and cheap to stream legally, people would actually pay for it instead.

Changed music forever. Today, billions of people use Spotify to listen to music. Artists, podcasters, and music fans all use the platform that Ek created.

Very successful. Ek's invention made him incredibly wealthy, with a net worth of about 8.7 billion dollars as of 2025.