Spotify to cut 6% of its workforce in latest tech sector layoff 

Music streaming service Spotify announced on Monday that it plans to lay off 6% of its workforce, equalling over 600 jobs, in the latest mass staff cuts in the technology sector. 

“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,” Spotify’s Chief Executive Daniel Elk said in a blog post announcing the measure. 

“Over the last few months we've made a considerable effort to rein in costs, but it simply hasn't been enough," he continued. 

"I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth," he added. 

Last year, the audio-streaming company’s operating expenditure grew at twice the speed of its revenue. At the same time, the company poured a lot of money into its podcast business, which is attractive to advertisers because of its higher engagement levels. 

Over the past year, Spotify’s shares have dropped by 50%, to $97.91 a share. 

Spotify is the latest technology company to announce massive cuts in its workforce. During the first two weeks of the year alone, more than 25,000 tech workers around the world have been let go, according to the layoff tracking site Layoffs.fyi.

Last fall, Meta—Facebook’s parent company—announced that it would be letting go of 11,000 employees. Similarly, Salesforce announced in early January that it was cutting back 10% of its positions, and Amazon said it was cutting 18,000 jobs. Last week, Microsoft announced that it would lay off 10,000 people. 

Other tech companies that have also cut back on jobs include DoorDash, Blue Apron, BuzzFeed, Vimeo, Lyft, and Twitter.