Paul Vogel is new to the role of Spotify CFO, but not to Spotify-or to the relationship between finance and the tech/media industry. For the last four years, he's been at Spotify heading up Investor Relations and leading the FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) and Treasury teams. Prior to that, he spent 20 years in various positions on Wall Street. Investing wasn't necessarily his primary passion, but the media and internet companies he was working with were.
I loved having the ability to understand the changes and the strategies that were going on in those industries, he said. I was always excited to meet the executives who were running those companies and understand how they thought about growing their businesses and sharing my opinion on where things could go.
So in 2016, after a stint as a CFO at a startup and then some time back on Wall Street, Paul found his way to Spotify, uniting his passion with his career. And as we recently announced, after nearly four years at Spotify, Paul has been appointed our new CFO. We sat down with Paul to welcome him into his new position.
Spotify has gone through some significant changes since you joined in 2016. What have been the two to three biggest that you've noticed? The most obvious change is the growth of both the platform and the number of people listening. When I started, we had just passed 30 million subscribers and 100 million users, so to turn around and end 2019 with more than 100 million subscribers and about 250 million users, that's insane growth.
The second would obviously be the increase in the number of employees and offices within Spotify. That growth is just, again, amazing. I'm not sure I would have predicted we'd grow so quickly. I think we had about 1,500 employees across the globe when I started, and now we have more than tripled in size.
But although the company culture has evolved with its size, the ethos of the company hasn't changed at all. When I came here, it was about empowering content creators to share their talent and creativity with the world and enabling billions of users to enjoy it. That hasn't changed. But now it goes way beyond music. We are talking about all of audio, and so our opportunity is even bigger.
And of course, the IPO was a big change as well. What was notable about that, from your point of view? With the IPO, we were doing something unprecedented by taking the company public in a way that had never been done before, and that was really exciting. Our ability to attempt this unique approach dovetails nicely into another one of our strengths, Spotify's ability to think about things differently, take risks, and innovate. It stems from Daniel's leadership and the way the company is set up. Of course, it would have never been possible without Barry McCarthy (Spotify's prior CFO) and his vision for re-inventing the process of going public.
What I think was great about the way we went public was that we wanted to be fully transparent, giving all investors-not just the big investors, but all investors-the same access to information. It was having an investor day before we were public where we could share the company's vision widely to everyone at once, and it was having that message delivered by the senior leadership team. This is quite different from a traditional IPO where only select investors can have that access to your senior management. So all of the transparency we talk about internally, we lived it. Going public via our direct listing was one of the most rewarding moments of my time at Spotify and also crystalized our commitment to transparency with our employees and investors.
Now it's a new year, new decade, new role. What excites you most about the road ahead, whether it's long term or short term? The opportunity to expose even more artists and creators, and not just music, but now all of audio, to even more people is massive. The opportunity is even bigger now than I thought it was when I first stepped in the door. I think we've only just scratched the surface of our potential. There is still tremendous opportunity to expand our user base. There's no reason why every smartphone in the world shouldn't have a streaming music/audio service on it. And there's no reason why that service shouldn't be Spotify.
What are some of the challenges or headwinds Spotify may face in the next 12 months or so? Long term, as you get bigger as a company, being able to continually act as fast as you'd like is a challenge. I think it's incumbent upon the leadership team to make sure we dedicate resources efficiently and effectively to allow us to innovate, grow, and take risks. That's number one.
In the short term, we are making big investments in podcasting. We're investing in the medium and are confident that, over time, it will drive more value for users and increase subscribers and engagement on the platform. We believe the opportunity for us here is vast. Part of my job is giving proof points to Wall Street to help tell our story and provide context and clarity on our financial results, forecast, and priorities.
What do you think our readers would find the most surprising about the general role of CFO? While the role is obviously about understanding the finances of the company, it's really about analyzing the numbers to help set strategy, allocate resources most effectively, and set up the business for long-term success. When done right, our jobs can really add a lot of value into the ecosystem. At Spotify, for example, our job is to make the engineer's job easier and more efficient. It allows the creative team to go out and sign deals and have the resources to actually execute against the plan they have. While to some people what we do may seem like a black box or just about the numbers, it&#
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Paul Vogel is new to the role of Spotify CFO, but not to Spotify-or to the relationship between finance and the tech/media industry. For the last four years, he's been at Spotify heading up Investor Relations and leading the FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) and Treasury teams. Prior to that, he spent 20 years in various positions on Wall Street. Investing wasn't necessarily his primary passion, but the media and internet companies he was working with were.
