Music streaming big Spotify has launched one other spherical of layoffs, this one affecting its podcast division, which will likely be present process a restructuring.
In an announcement launched Monday (June 5), Sahar Elhabashi, VP, Head of Podcast Enterprise, mentioned Spotify can be decreasing headcount in its podcast division by 200, representing about 2% of the corporate’s complete workforce.
“We’re increasing our partnership efforts with main podcasters from throughout the globe with a tailor-made method optimized for every present and creator,” Elhabashi mentioned within the statement.
Elhabashi mentioned the layoffs have been a part of a broader effort to maneuver to “the following section of our podcast technique,” which “begins with maximizing consumption from the huge viewers we’ve established via format innovation and making certain that extra creators in additional locations obtain success” and contains “the introduction of extra enterprise fashions to assist extra creators make significant cash from their work.”
“This basic pivot from a extra uniform proposition will permit us to help the creator group higher. Nonetheless, doing so requires adapting; over the previous few months, our senior management crew has labored carefully with HR to find out the optimum group for this subsequent chapter,” the assertion continued, including that the workers reductions have been a “troublesome however needed choice.”
The affected staffers will likely be supported “with beneficiant severance packages, together with prolonged healthcare protection and fast entry to outplacement help,” Elhabashi mentioned within the assertion.
As a part of the reorg, Spotify will merge two of its podcast studios, Parcast and Gimlet, into “a renewed Spotify Studios operation that may proceed to supply a variety of high-impact originals, together with Stolen, The Journal, Science Vs, Heavyweight, Serial Killers, and Conspiracy Theories.”
One other studio, the Ringer, will proceed working individually.
“Each studios will greenlight new exhibits with an elevated give attention to always-on programming that drives sturdy, loyal audiences and attracts advertisers,” Elhabashi mentioned.
Stockholm-headquartered Spotify expanded aggressively into the podcast area beginning in 2019, attracting main names to the platform such Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, and Joe Rogan, the generally controversial podcaster who has one of many largest prime-time US audiences in any medium.
The most recent spherical of layoffs follows an announcement by Spotify in January that it will be slicing greater than 500 jobs, a choice that CEO Daniel Ek indicated got here on account of overly aggressive growth on the firm.
“To supply some perspective on why we’re making this choice, in 2022, the expansion of Spotify’s OPEX outpaced our income development by 2X. That may have been unsustainable long-term in any local weather, however with a difficult macro surroundings, it will be much more troublesome to shut the hole,” Ek mentioned in a letter to workers on the time.
In April, Spotify shut down its dwell audio app, Spotify Reside, about two years after launching it. The corporate didn’t specify any specific variety of job cuts related to the transfer. Nonetheless, among the dwell exhibits on the app continued as pre-recorded exhibits on the principle Spotify app.
“This basic pivot from a extra uniform proposition will permit us to help the creator group higher.”
Sahar Elhabashi, Spotify
The most recent spherical of layoffs comes regardless of total sturdy numbers at Spotify in current quarters. The corporate’s newest earnings report, for Q1 2023, confirmed stronger-than-forecast subscriber development, with a web addition of 5 million paid subscribers, bringing the worldwide complete to 210 million.
Its complete month-to-month lively customers – which incorporates paid subscriptions and advertiser-supported listeners, amounted to 515 million, up by 26 million from the earlier quarter and considerably overshooting steering for the quarter by 15 million.
The corporate generated €3.04 billion in income for the quarter, up 13% YoY on a relentless foreign money foundation, and posted an working lack of €156 million.
Within the assertion Monday, Elhabashi careworn the podcast division’s successes, noting that it “is now the most-used audio podcast platform in most corners of the world and can also be the No. 1 podcast writer within the US.”
Podcast consumption on Spotify skilled 1,400% development in opposition to its 2019 baseline, and advert income “skilled excessive double-digit development from 2021 to 2022.”
Spotify isn’t the one DSP slicing again on workers amid a broad slowdown in capital movement to tech firms.
SoundCloud introduced in August 2022, that it will be slashing 20% of its workforce, a transfer CEO Michael Weissman mentioned was “needed to make sure SoundCloud’s long-term success given the difficult financial local weather and monetary market headwinds.”
On the finish of 2020, the Berlin-headquartered firm reported having just below 400 staff, round 350 of them full-time.
SoundCloud adopted that up with one other spherical of layoffs in Could of this 12 months, affecting round 8% of its workforce.Music Enterprise Worldwide
