Spotify, the audio streaming platform, is laying off 6 percent of its workforce, or about 600 employees, joining a growing list of big tech companies that are cutting costs amid lingering concerns about the global economy.
“As you know, we have made a considerable effort to control costs over the past few months, but it just hasn’t been enough,” Daniel Ek, Spotify’s chief executive, said in a statement. note to employees Monday. The company had more than 9,800 employees at the end of the third quarter, according to regulatory filings.
The music and podcast platform is the latest tech company to lay off employees to keep costs in check amid concerns about a recession. Last week, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, laid off 12,000 employees and Microsoft laid off 10,000. Media companies have also been cutting their workforce. Vox Media cut 7 percent of its staff on Friday, and in December The Washington Post told employees there would be layoffs at the company.
The layoffs at Stockholm-based Spotify were largely due to macroeconomic challenges, Ek said in the note. “I was too ambitious to invest before our revenue growth,” she wrote.
The company offers employees about five months of severance pay and medical care, as well as career counseling services. Spotify will incur 35 million to 45 million euros in compensation costs, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Ek also announced some changes among Spotify executives as part of an effort to “restructure our organization.” Dawn Ostroff, the company’s director of content and advertising, is leaving. A veteran television and video executive, she was hired in 2018 when Spotify was looking for ways to expand its offerings beyond music.
As part of the reorganization, Alex Norstrom, Chief Commercial Officer, and Gustav Soderstrom, Director of Research and Development, will assume co-chairman roles.
