Spotify Layoffs Expected As Soon as This Week – The Hollywood Reporter

Audio streaming giant Spotify on Monday said that it would be laying off about 6 percent of its workforce, or about 600 people, as the streaming audio giant becomes the latest company in the technology space to cut back on staff amid a challenging economy.

The company said that it expects to take severance costs of between $38 million-$49 million in connection with the layoffs.

The layoffs were expected to be more broadly based than a previous round of cuts in October, which hit staff working on canceled shows from in-house podcast studios Gimlet and Parcast.

To that end, one of Spotify’s most high-profile executives, chief content and advertising officer Dawn Ostroff, will depart the company “as part of a broader reorganization,” the company said. Ostroff will become a senior adviser to Spotify to help with the transition.

As part of other executive changes, Alex Norström, currently chief freemium business officer, and Gustav Söderström, currently chief research & development officer, are being elevated to co-presidents of the company.

Spotify executives previously signaled they had plans to reduce headcount-related expenses, with CEO Daniel Ek telling staff last June that the company would reduce its hiring growth by 25 percent and “be a bit more prudent with the absolute level of new hires over the next few quarters.” Paul Vogel, the company’s chief financial officer, also pointed to “increasing uncertainty regarding the global economy” at Spotify’s investor day in June as a reason for “evaluating [Spotify’s] headcount growth in the near term.”

Other tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have each announced major rounds of layoffs impacting thousands of employees in recent months. The most recent layoff announcement came from Google parent company Alphabet, which is set to reduce its staff by 6 percent, which represents around 12,000 employees.

As of the end of the third quarter, Spotify employed around 9,800 people. The audio company brought in €3.04 billion in revenue and added 195 million paid subscribers during the third quarter. At the time, Ek said the economic downturn had not had a “material impact” on the company’s business but that Spotify would be “more selective” with its “overall spending.”

Spotify will report its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 31 before the market opens.