Spotify seen cutting staff as soon as this week to cut costs

Spotify Technology is planning layoffs as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the plans, joining a slew of technology companies from Amazon.com to Meta Platforms in announcing job cuts to lower costs.

Read: Amazon to slash more than 18,000 jobs

The number of positions to be eliminated wasn’t specified by the people. Spotify laid off 38 staff from its Gimlet Media and Parcast podcast studios in October. The music streaming giant has about 9,800 employees, according to its third-quarter earnings report.

Tech companies added to their headcounts during the pandemic but were forced to make reductions in response to reduced advertising revenue and a shaky economic outlook. Amazon.com, Meta and Microsoft were among the biggest companies to announce staff reductions recently, while Google parent Alphabet said Friday it will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6 per cent of its global workforce.

Read: Meta to lay off more than 11,000 employees

A Spotify spokesperson declined to comment on the upcoming cuts.

The company made a massive commitment to podcasting beginning in 2019. It spent over a billion dollars on acquiring podcast networks, creation software, a hosting service and the rights to popular shows like The Joe Rogan Experience and Armchair Expert.

Still, the investments have tested investors’ patience. Shares tumbled 66 per cent last year as investors questioned when they’d begin seeing returns. Spotify executives said in June its podcast business would become profitable in the next one to two years.

Read: Microsoft plans 10,000 job cuts, will take $1.2bn charge