According to a person familiar with the matter, Spotify will lay off employees as soon as this week as the company rolls out plans to reduce operating costs.
The layoffs are expected to be broader than the previous cut in October, which has affected employees working on canceled shows from in-house podcast studios Gimlet and Parcast.
A representative for Spotify declined to comment.
Spotify executives have previously signaled plans to reduce costs related to headcount, with CEO Daniel Ek telling employees last June that the company would reduce the increase by 25%. head of hiring and “a little more cautious about the absolute level of new hires over the next few years and quarters.” Paul Vogel, the company’s chief financial officer, also pointed to “growing uncertainty over the global economy” at Spotify’s June investment day as a reason to “assess [Spotify’s] increase the number of employees in the near future.
Although the exact number of layoffs – first reported by Bloomberg — Not immediately obvious, other tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have announced massive layoffs affecting thousands of employees in recent months. The most recent layoff notice comes from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which is set to cut staff by 6%, representing about 12,000 employees.
As of the end of the third quarter, Spotify employed about 9,800 people. The audio company brought in €3.04 billion in revenue and added 195 million paid subscribers in the third quarter. At the time, Ek said the recession would not have a “significant impact” on the company’s business but that Spotify would be “more selective” with its “overall spending.”
Spotify will report fourth-quarter earnings on January 31 before the market opens.
