Ehn has overseen the long creation of launch of the music streaming technology and its evolution from invite-only, word-of-mouth PC app to its PC-and-mobile freemium app model. The Stockholm- and London-based firm spent £4 million on R&D in 2007 and 2008 and Ehn was partly responsible for spending it on making the plan become a reality. No wonder he feels a “little sad” walking away from the project.

Robert adds: Ehn had been particularly involved in creating Spotify’s backend infrastructure.