Spotify has embarked on another round of layoffs. This time, he’s going to throw 2% of the workforce or, what is the same, 200 employees, as announced this Monday by the vice president of the company, Sahar Elhabashi, in a statement. Most of the departures will take place in the podcast division, which will focus a good part of the Swedish firm’s cost reduction.
Is about the second batch of layoffs that the company carries out in less than half a year, since Spotify already carried out another exit plan at the end of January, which then affected 6% of the workers. Thus, it joined many other technology companies that were cutting their staff.
This time, the audio streaming house has decided to focus in the podcast division to carry out the terminations. The firm has explained that this area has grown enormously in recent years, a reason that now explains why this is where efforts are reduced.
The vice president of the group has detailed that during these years of growth they have learned what works and what does not and what the next trends will be, which has led them to change strategy and undertake layoffs. “We’ve recently embarked on a new phase of our podcast strategy,” Elhabashi says. In this sense, he explained that they are going to focus on monetizing content creators, making the ways in which they can earn income more flexible, and continuing to retain audiences, among other priorities.
Spotify also wants to reduce spending at its recording studios, Gimlet Media and Paracast, thereby going to merge both on Spotify Studios. The Ringer, another of its labels, which focuses on sports, cultural and technological content, will continue to operate independently. These three were acquired during 2019 and 2020.
The company has broken out some of the podcast division’s numbers, reflecting its recent development. Advertising revenue grew in double digits from 2021 to 2022, the firm already has 100 million listeners in this product, that is, 10 times more than in 2019, and has more than 200,000 titles and 5 million programs.
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