Barry McCarthy is the former CFO of Spotify.
McCarthy stepped down from the position in 2020, but remains on the Spotify Board of Directors.
Since February 2022, McCarthy has been CEO of fitness brand Peloton, where he accepted a USD $168 million annual compensation package.
Barry McCarthy: Early career
With an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, across his career Barry McCarthy has served in various management positions in management consulting, investment banking, and media and entertainment, including as Chief Financial Officer at Music Choice, a music programming service distributed over direct broadcast satellite and cable systems, from 1993-1999.
In 1999, he joined Netflix as CFO and helped the company float in 2002. He left the company in 2010.
Before joining Spotify, McCarthy was a private investor and served as a member of the Board of Directors of several companies, including Pandora, from 2011 to 2013, and Eventbrite, from 2011 to 2015.
Barry McCarthy: Second in command
Barry McCarthy joined Spotify’s Board of Directors in 2014. In 2015, he stepped aside from the Board to become CFO. Following the departure of Co-Founder Martin Lorentzon from the company’s Chairman position, McCarthy was considered the second most influential figure at the streaming platform. He left Spotify in 2020, telling the Financial Times: “Daniel asked me to do three things: take [Spotify] public, build a team that was capable of running a public company and recruit and train my successor.”
As CFO, McCarthy was the mastermind behind Spotify’s circumvention of a traditional initial public offering, instead pulling off a direct listing in 2018.Music Business Worldwide