Business Daily, Founders: Ola Sars from Beats Music to the soundtrack of hospitality

Business Daily

Founders: Ola Sars from Beats Music to the soundtrack of hospitality

5 August 2026

Available for over a year

Ola Sars has spent two decades helping shape the way music is discovered, streamed and licensed. He co-founded Beats Music, the streaming service that helped lay the groundwork for Apple Music, before launching Soundtrack, a company that provides licensed music to restaurants, cafés and other hospitality businesses. After moving to the US as a child and learning English from scratch, how did he become a music-tech entrepreneur? And was selling his stake in Beats before Apple acquired the company the right decision?

(Photo: Ola Sars, seen from the shoulders up, wears a black jumper and has short shaved brown hair going grey at the sides, blue eyes and stubble growth. He looks at the camera with a neutral expression. Credit: Rickard Croy)

Presenter: Leanna Byrne

Producer: Niamh McDermott

You can email the team: businessdaily@bbc.co.uk