Spotify laying off 17 percent of employees across the company

In a pre-holiday shocker, Spotify is laying off 17 percent of its workforce across the company, CEO Daniel Ek announced in a company press release. The cuts are being made due to what Ek called “the challenges ahead” and he elected to make them immediately instead of doing smaller reductions over time. Affected employees will be notified later today, he added. 

“I realize that for many, a reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and our performance,” Ek wrote. “We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025. Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to right-size our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives. While I am convinced this is the right action for our company, I also understand it will be incredibly painful for our team.”

Ek went on to note that the company expanded considerably in 2020 and 2021 due to the lower cost of capital. “These investments generally worked, contributing to Spotify’s increased output and the platform’s robust growth this past year,” he said. And despite reductions made last year — the company laid …read more