As Daniel Ek reveals the 'real' reason Meghan and Harry's podcast series cancelled, what is his net worth?

Daniel Ek shared the reasons why the Spotify deal with Harry and Meghan was cancelled after only 12 episodes of Meghan's 'Archetypes' podcast in a recent interview with the BBC, though the reasons are not as sordid as some may hope. Speaking to Zoe Kleinman, Ek revealed that it was just one of those ideas that didn't pan out how everyone hoped it would.

"We thought new innovation was needed to happen here," he revealed, "We thought we can come in and offer a great experience that both makes consumers very happy and allows new creators new avenues. And the truth of the matter is some of it has worked, some of it hasn't."

"We're learning from those and we are moving on and we wish all of the ones we didn't renew with the best of success they can have going forward."

Though last year there were reports that Spotify’s subscription base was ailing internationally, back home in the UK the music streaming giant found itself in a purple patch of profit. Most of the income from the last year is reportedly from advertising revenue, notably found on Spotify’s freemium tier.

The UK subsidiary of the Stockholm-based service, situated in the Adelphi building on Savoy Place in London, reported a turnover of £225 million last year, up from £133 million the year before. That income before tax was £16.7 million, up from £9.1 million from the previous year in the UK alone.

But that news did not do anything to change the mind of Spotify CEO Daniel Ek from selling off around $100 million USD of his stock holdings in the company, as Billboard has reported. The amount represents the sale of 675,000 shares, which will be sold by D.G.E. Investments, an entity “indirectly wholly owned” by Ek, according to the SEC filing. 

Of those shares, 203,435 were acquired through a stock option exercise on July 13, 2020, the filing notes, while 471,565 were purchased by Ek on May 5, 2022 — a $50 million investment the CEO touted on Twitter that same day in a ploy to shore up investor confidence.

Since then, he has made investments both as an individual and through Prima Materia, a European investment company he and Shakil Khan co-founded in 2021. On July 5, his Swedish health-tech company, Neko Health, raised 60 million euros ($65 million) from a group of outside investors led by Klaus Hommels‘ Lakestar.

What is Daniel Ek’s net worth?

According to Forbes, Daniel Ek’s last net worth was said to be an estimated $2.6 billion USD, however, this has yet to take into account the additional revenue from sales of his shares, nor if the increase in a Spotify subscription has yet to take an effect on his net worth.