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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
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.
