Spotify Laying Off 6% of its Workforce

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Facts

  • Music streaming platform Spotify announced Monday the company will be laying off 6% of its global workforce, which is about 600 employees.
  • Spotify has a total workforce of around 9.8K people, employing 5.4K people in the US and 1.9K in Sweden.
  • Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO, said last year the company would slow hiring but did not plan layoffs. Ek said Monday, “Over the last few months we’ve made a considerable effort to rein-in [sic] costs, but it simply hasn’t been enough...'
  • The layoffs were announced in a filing, with reports saying the job cuts will impact all departments across the company's workforce.
  • Spotify also announced Dawn Ostroff, chief content officer, was leaving the company. Spotify's stock jumped more than 2% in early trading Monday after the announcement.
  • These layoffs come as more than 200K tech industry workers have been laid off since the start of 2022 — with layoffs recently announced at tech giants Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta as well as other companies.

Sources: New york times, CNBC, Wall street journal, Bloomberg, Usa today and Usa today.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Verge. For far too long, Spotify focused on unsustainable growth rather than turning a profit. Investors pressured the platform to focus on ad sales and revenue, but its management refused. Now, this poor business decision is coming back to haunt the company and forcing it to restructure after promising not to let people go.
  • Narrative B, as provided by CNN. Spotify isn’t alone in feeling the pain of a dip in consumer spending because of inflation, and funding drying up because of higher interest rates. In the larger picture, Spotify and other tech companies are laying off a small percentage of their staff. This mini reset will help them thrive moving forward.