Spotify to Cut 6% of Workforce, the Latest in Big Tech's Layoffs

From CNET: Spotify will cut its workforce 6%, the streaming-audio company said Monday, the latest technology heavyweight to lay off workers and tighten its belt.

Based on the number of workers Spotify reported at the end of 2021, a 6% reduction would mean cutting roughly 400 positions.

"Like many other leaders, I hoped to sustain the strong tailwinds from the pandemic and believed that our broad global business and lower risk to the impact of a slowdown in ads would insulate us," CEO Daniel Ek said in a note to workers that Spotify published on its news blog. "In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth. ... I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today."

During the periods of social distancing, people's usage of Spotify tended to soften, as they stopped listening to music on the go when they were stuck at home. But the company, which is the biggest music streaming service of its kind, has continued its march of growth: It has set the expectation that, when it reports its latest results next week, it eclipsed 200 million subscribers at the end of the last year, for 479 million total listeners.

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