Chief Freemium Business Officer at Spotify, Alex Norstrom: The Power of Setting Impossible Goals

Guest: Alex Norstrom, Chief Freemium Business Officer at Spotify In this episode, we cover: The surprising lack of media coverage of Alex despite his prominence at Spotify (05:56); Working at his mother’s Chinese restaurant and his relationship with food (12:21); The early “fiascos” in Alex’s career, and how he came to work at Candy Crush Saga creator King (18:01); How Spotify CEO Daniel Ek convinced Alex to work for him (25:38); Why Alex has tried to set “impossible goals” since his first day at Spotify (28:40); Why the freemium business model works (34:21); Spotify’s hardest and biggest market: The USA (38:39); Pivoting to a mobile-first strategy and the pricing trick that turned conversion numbers around (42:59); The invention of Discover Weekly, and Spotify’s deep bench of other features (51:21); How Spotify got interested in podcasts, and the decision to put them in the same app with music (57:50); The odd but crucial lesson Alex learned early in his career: Stay near the laughter (01:06:46); Being ubiquitous on many platforms, and the art of pitching big & partnering smart (01:09:05); The end of free growth on the internet, and the power of Spotify Wrapped (01:15:07)