Spotify has introduced plans to put off roughly 200 employees because it adjusts the way it handles partnerships with podcasters.
The cuts will influence roughly 2% of the corporate’s total worker base.
“We’re increasing our partnership efforts with main podcasters from throughout the globe with a tailor-made method optimized for every present and creator,” Sahar Elhabashi, Spotify’s head of podcast enterprise wrote in a blog post on Monday. “This elementary pivot from a extra uniform proposition will enable us to help the creator neighborhood higher. Nevertheless, doing so requires adapting…Consequently, we now have made the tough however obligatory determination to make a strategic realignment of our group and cut back our world podcast vertical and different capabilities by roughly 200 individuals.”
Spotify has leaned heavily into the podcast enterprise up to now few years, signing high-profile sponsorships with top-tier podcasters, together with Joe Rogan and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and growing the content material library from 200,000 titles to greater than 5 million. The corporate says the layoffs won’t influence its dedication to unique programming, however it does appear to be scaling again that technique considerably, combining the favored podcast networks Parcast and Gimlet Media into its Spotify Studios division.
Elhabashi notes podcast advert income “skilled excessive double-digit development from 2021 to 2022.”
Staff who’re being laid off will obtain “beneficiant severance packages, together with prolonged Healthcare protection and instant entry to outplacement help,” Elhabashi wrote.