Photo: Spotify | By Alexandra Canal, AOL/Yahoo | Layoffs have hit music streaming giant Spotify (SPOT). The company announced plans to cut 6% of its workforce, or about 600 employees, early Monday, a move that comes after a challenging 2022 for the business that saw Spotify stock lose more than two-thirds of its value.
In addition to staff cuts, Spotify announced an executive reshuffling, with Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström moving to the position of co-presidents.
Söderström will also serve as the company’s chief product officer; Norström will move into a role as Spotify’s chief business officer. Chief content officer and advertising business officer Dawn Ostroff will depart.
“While we have made great progress in improving speed in the last few years, we haven’t focused as much on improving efficiency,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a blog post on Monday. “We still spend far too much time syncing on slightly different strategies, which slows us down.
“And in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance. So, in an effort to drive more efficiency, control costs, and speed up decision-making, I have decided to restructure our organization.”
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One of those heavily invested areas has been podcasts.
Spotify has spent $1 billion pushing into the podcast market over the past four years, signing on celebrities like the Obamas, Prince Harry, and a Kardashian. The company paid $230 million to acquire podcast studio Gimlet in 2019. Spotify then paid a reported $200 million to bring Joe Rogan exclusively to the platform, and another $200 million for The Ringer in 2020.
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Go here to read the financial aspects of this change plus a graph:
https://www.aol.com/finance/spotify-cuts-6-workforce-content-132853717.html
Alexandra is a Senior Entertainment and Media Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com
Spotify Cuts 6% of Workforce, Content Chief to Depart as CEO Ek Stresses ‘efficiency’
