Spotify cuts 200 jobs within its podcasting unit

Spotify cuts 200 jobs within its podcasting unit
Spotify is shedding 200 workers from its podcasting unit, amounting to 2 p.c of the audio streaming firm’s international workforce.

In a observe Monday, the Sweden-based firm mentioned it has “made the difficult but necessary decision to make a strategic realignment” inside its podcast division, together with merging Parcast and Gimlet Media studios into one. Bill Simmons’ sports activities podcast, “The Ringer,” will stay separate.

“We are expanding our partnership efforts with leading podcasters from across the globe with a tailored approach optimised for each show and creator,” Spotify VP Sahar Elhabashi wrote within the observe. “This fundamental pivot from a more uniform proposition will allow us to support the creator community better.”

Spotify is laying off 200 employees from its podcasting unit.
Spotify is shedding 200 workers from its podcasting unit. (Adobe Stock)

Spotify has wager massive on podcasts in recent times. In 2019, it redesigned the app to emphasize them, and has spent greater than US$500 million ($755 million) on podcast producing studios. It additionally has numerous unique podcasts it distributes, akin to “The Joe Rogan Experience” and Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast.

However, the corporate has been paring again the variety of exclusives it has. Deals with self-help guru Brené Brown, sports activities journalist Jemele Hill and Barack and Michelle Obama’s offers are expiring.

Spotify (SPOT) mentioned it has 100 million podcast listeners and is the no. 1 podcast writer within the United States. It added that podcast advert income “experienced high double-digit growth” from 2021 to 2022.

This is Spotify’s second spherical of layoffs this yr. In January, roughly 6 p.c of its international workforce was minimize due to a slowdown in promoting spending.

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“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. In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth,” CEO Daniel Ek mentioned on the time.

One notable layoff throughout that was Dawn Ostroff, its chief content material officer, who signed numerous podcasting offers throughout her brief tenure.

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Source: www.9news.com.au