Spotify layoffs 2023: Latest firing wrapped up, swept over 1,500 employees

Spotify layoffs 2023 are one of the biggest stories in the streaming industry for the time being. The streaming giant has wrapped up and swept over 17% of its workforce, bringing a rough estimate of 1,500 affected employees.  

“Economic growth has slowed dramatically and capital has become more expensive. Spotify is not an exception to these realities,” the company’s CEO Daniel Ek shared the announcement on the company’s blog on Monday.

“We now find ourselves in a very different environment. And despite our efforts to reduce costs this past year, our cost structure for where we need to be is still too big,” he continues.

The company’s employee count just keeps shrinking, bringing a total of over 27.5% employee reduction from last year’s number. 

Back in the summer, the streaming giant cut over 200 jobs from its podcast unit including industry leader Dawn Ostroff. It was the second layoff after the one in January, which affected 600 employees at that time. 

“When we look back on 2022 and 2023, it has truly been impressive what we have accomplished. But, at the same time, the reality is much of this output was linked to having more resources. By most metrics, we were more productive but less efficient. We need to be both,” he continues.