Spotify has Appointed Christian Luiga as Its New Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

On Thursday, April 4, Spotify announced Christian Luiga as the company’s new chief financial officer. Paul Vogel had left the position at the end of March.

Christian Luiga, who will take over as Spotify’s third CFO in the past five years, will be in charge of financial planning and analysis during the company’s adjustments to the way it pays artists, the layoffs that affected almost 17% of employees last year, and the increase in subscription prices meant to boost profitability.

A 15% increase in premium subscribers (to 236 million) drove a 16% increase in Spotify’s revenue last year to 3.67 billion euros ($4.05 billion). However, it still reports operating losses on a regular basis due to the limitations of a business model where high music licensing fees are the primary source of revenue.

The business reported an operating loss of 75 million euros ($82.7 million) in the fourth quarter of last year, despite having one profitable quarter.

Following the departure of Barry McCarthy, who became Peloton’s CEO in 2022, Vogel, Spotify’s most recent CFO, was elevated from head of investor relations to CFO in 2020.

Christian Luiga, who reports to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and is based in Sweden, will begin work on the position in late summer, a press release states. Until then, the interim finance chief will be Ben Kung, vice president of financial planning and analysis.

Christian Luiga was the CFO and acting CEO of the European telecommunications company Telia before joining Spotify. Previously, he held these positions at the European defense and security company Saab AB and the European telecom giant Telia.