Spotify may start laying off employees this week: Report

2023 has not started on a good note for some tech giants and their employees. Tech companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta have already announced job cuts. The companies have cited cost-cutting amid the global economic slowdown as the reason behind the decision. The mass layoffs will affect a big chunk of the workforce of these companies and other companies are also following suit. Swedish music streaming giant Spotify is also reportedly planning layoffs. According to a report by Bloomberg, people familiar with the company’s plans have confirmed the job cuts are expected to be carried out within this week. The report doesn’t specify the number of employees Spotify is planning to remove.
Spotify layoffs: More details
In October 2022, Spotify laid off 38 staff from its Gimlet Media and Parcast podcast studios. As per the company’s third-quarter earnings report, the music streaming service currently has about 9,800 employees. The report adds that a Spotify spokesperson declined to comment on the upcoming job cuts.
As tech companies navigated through uncertain global conditions, in June 2022, Spotify was reportedly planning to reduce new hiring by at least 25%. Earlier, the company shut down its lightweight listening app ‘Spotify Stations’.
Spotify’s CFO Paul Vogel mentioned that the company was well aware” of the increasing uncertainty regarding the global economy” at an investors’ presentation in 2022.
The report adds that the music streaming platform had more than 433 million monthly active users (MAUs) in 2022.

Spotify’s commitment to podcasts
Spotify made a big commitment to podcasts in 2019 by spending over a billion dollars to create software, acquire podcast networks and serve as a hosting service. The company even bought the rights to popular shows like The Joe Rogan Experience and Armchair Expert. However, in October 2022, Spotify reportedly shut down 11 original podcasts from its in-house studios. This move was also a part of the cost-cutting and layoffs.
Nearly 5% of the company’s staff who used to be a part of the original podcasts were either reassigned to new shows or were laid off. The report also claims that Spotify may even shut down the “Horoscope Today” podcast by the second quarter of 2023.
This investment by the company tested the patience of the investors as Spotify’s shares went down 66% in 2022. The investors also started questioning the company about when they’d start seeing returns. In June 2022, Spotify executives said that its podcast business will become profitable within the next couple of years.
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