Spotify to lay off 6% of its employees as chief content officer departs the music streaming giant
Nickie Louise
Posted On January 23, 2023
Spotify is the latest tech company to lay off its staff as tech companies battle with the global economic slowdown. Spotify announced on Monday that it plans to lay off 6% of its employees, or about 600 jobs, adding to 173 tech companies that have already laid off their employees as the sector prepares for a possible recession.
Alongside the layoff announcement, Spotify also said that its chief content and advertising business officer, Dawn Ostroff, will depart as part of a broader reorganization.
Spotify, which had about 9,800 full-time employees as of September 2022, said it expects to incur about 35 million euros (about $38.06 million) to 45 million euros in severance-related charges. Back in October, Spotify had said it would slow down hiring for the rest of 2022 and into 2023.
With just four weeks into 2023, more than 55,970 tech workers have lost their jobs, according to Layoffs.FYI, a site that has been tracking all tech layoffs using data compiled from public reports.
Last week, Google’s parent company Alphabet also announced it would lay off 12,000 employees as companies stake their futures on artificial intelligence (AI). Microsoft also said it would lay off 10,000 jobs instead of the 11,000 reported by major news outlets. In addition to the layoff, the Redmond-based company also said that it would take a $1.2-billion charge as its cloud-computing customers dissect their spending and the company braces for a potential recession. The layoff is far larger than the 1,000 job cuts the company announced back in October 2020.
Spotify is one of the world’s most popular music streaming services, with over 356 million monthly active users, including 158 million premium subscribers. The music-streaming behemoth has seen explosive growth in revenue and customer base in recent years.
Spotify started in October 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden as a commercial music streaming service that provides restricted digital content from a range of record labels and artists. The company also provides a freemium service; basic features are free with advertisements or limitations.
