Spotify to Cut 6% of Workers

About 600 workers will be laid off as early as this week

By
Nathan Reiff
Full Bio
Nathan Reiff has been writing expert articles and news about financial topics such as investing and trading, cryptocurrency, ETFs, and alternative investments on Investopedia since 2016.
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Published January 23, 2023
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, talks during a presentation at the 2012 Spotify press event on December 6, 2012 in New York City

Kevin Mazur / Getty Images

Spotify (SPOT) is cutting 6% of its workers amid dwindling spending on its music streaming platform, joining a host of tech companies that are retreating from a pandemic-era hiring spree.

Key Takeaways

  • Music streaming service Spotify announced it will cut 6% of staff, or about 600 people.
  • Spotify's consumer and advertiser demand has dwindled in a cooling economy.
  • The firm joins Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Meta Platforms in reducing headcounts after a hiring frenzy early in the pandemic.

Three years after Covid drove consumers onto online and streaming services, Spotify said a cooling economy and lackluster demand from consumers and advertisers prompted the cuts as early as this week. Spotify joins Google parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and other tech companies in announcing sweeping employee reductions.

The Swedish company employs more than half its 9,800 staff in the U.S. The layoffs will impact about 600 workers, according to a company-wide note CEO Daniel Ek sent on Jan. 23. At the same time, Spotify's head of content Dawn Ostroff will leave the company after increasing the service's podcast content 40-fold in the last five years.

Spotify shares were up over 3% in early trading on Jan. 23.

Article Sources
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  1. CNBC. "Spotify cuts 6% of its workforce — read the memo CEO Daniel Ek sent to staff."

  2. Reuters. "Spotify to cut staff as soon as this week - Bloomberg News."

  3. Yahoo! Finance. "Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT)."

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