Spotify to reduce staff by 17% in second layoff this year

STOCKHOLM — Spotify will reduce its total headcount by around 17 per cent across the company, it said in an email on Monday (Dec 4), after laying of six per cent of this staff in January citing higher costs.

In the latest third quarter, the company swung to a profit aided by price hikes in its streaming services and growth in subscribers in all regions, and forecast that its number of monthly listeners would reach 601 million in the holiday quarter.

CEO Daniel Ek told Reuters at that time the company was still focusing on efficiencies to get more out of each dollar.

On Monday, he said a reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and its performance.

"We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025," CEO Daniel Ek said in a mail to employees.

"Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to rightsize our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives."

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