Brantberg joins Spotify after senior roles at Epidemic Sound and Overtone Studios, where he spent 12 years across sales, music and label leadership.
Spotify has named Niklas Brantberg as managing director for the Nordics, bringing in a veteran of Epidemic Sound and Overtone Studios as the company sharpens its regional leadership.
Brantberg said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, September 8, that he started the role on Monday, September 7. He joins Spotify from Overtone Studios, the Sweden-based label where he was CEO.
A 12-year run inside Epidemic Group
Brantberg framed the move as the end of “an incredible 12 years at Epidemic Sound and Overtone Studios,” and thanked colleagues including Epidemic Sound co-founder Oscar Höglund.
He joined Epidemic Sound in 2014 and later became SVP of Global Sales and Streaming Partnerships, overseeing the company’s streaming deals. In 2019, he moved into the role of chief of music at the Stockholm-headquartered production music company before taking over as CEO of Overtone Studios.
Overtone sits alongside Epidemic Sound within Epidemic Group, which said in July that it was changing its name from Epidemic Sound Group. Epidemic Sound acquired the label in 2022, when it was still called A-P Records. It was rebranded as Overtone Studios in March 2023.
Spotify’s Nordic push gets a local operator
Brantberg’s appointment comes as Spotify continues to build out its regional management structure. The company named Chris Whiteley as managing director for Northern Europe in March 2025. That role covers the UK and Ireland and coordinates marketing, music and podcast functions across the region.
In his post, Brantberg said Spotify has spent 20 years changing how people discover and experience music, and called the platform “one of Sweden’s biggest creative export industries.” He said the company now carries “a big responsibility.”
He said he wants to build stronger partnerships with artists, authors, creators, labels and publishers across the Nordics, and help more Nordic talent reach a global audience. He also said he wants Spotify to be “a constructive voice” on AI and platform responsibility.
Why the hire matters now
Brantberg arrives with direct experience on the business side of streaming, catalog strategy and rights-holder relationships. At Epidemic Sound, he worked on the company’s streaming partnerships. At Overtone, he was running a label tied to music that has drawn scrutiny for the use of multiple composer and artist aliases.
That background gives Spotify a Nordic lead who knows both the creator side and the platform side of the business. It also lands at a time when Spotify is still leaning on Europe as a major part of its subscriber base. The company said Europe accounted for 36% of its Premium subscribers at the end of Q2 2026, when it reported 300 million Premium subscribers and 777 million monthly active users.
Spotify also said nearly 100 million users engaged with its 20th anniversary in-app experience during its first six days. Brantberg’s job now is less about celebration than execution: keeping Nordic relationships tight while the platform faces bigger questions around AI, discovery and who gets paid when music travels at scale.
