Spotify has announced it is laying off 17 per cent of its employees globally in what is the music streaming giant's third round of job cuts in 2023 amid struggles to ensure profitability, as per reports.
A spokesperson confirmed to AP that the number of staffers getting the axe amounts to about 1,500.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in a message to the company's employees on Monday said the layoff was part of a strategic reorientation after the company invested significantly in employees, content and marketing in 2020 and 2021.
Ek said Spotify is in a different environment now after central banks started hiking interest rates last year. “And despite our efforts to reduce costs this past year, our cost structure for where we need to be is still too big,” he said, adding that fewer employees will ensure the firm's continued profitability.
The Stockholm-based music streaming giant announced in January that it was letting go 6 per cent of global workforce and in June, it axed 2 per cent of its employees who were mainly in the podcast division.
In November, several staff in Amazon Music's editorial and audio content team in Latin America, North America and Europe were sent notices about layoffs. Over 27,000 Amazon employees were affected by job cuts over the past year.