Spotify Lays Off Almost 200 Employees To Expand Podcast Partnerships
The company is set to focus on collaborations with the podcasting community and broaden its analytics capabilities.
Spotify has announced that it will lay off approximately 200 employees, or 2% of its workforce, in an attempt to focus on expanding its podcast partnerships.
The company is set to concentrate on collaborations with the podcasting community, and broaden its analytics capabilities by expanding 'Spotify For Podcasters'. It is expanding its partnership efforts with podcasters globally, with an optimised approach for each show and creator.
The move has led the digital music streaming service to do a strategic realignment and reduce its own global podcast vertical and other functions, according to a company statement.
"The dismissed employees will be provided access to placement support, severance packages, including extended healthcare coverage," said Sahar Elhabashi, vice president, head of podcast business, Spotify.
The importance of growing the podcast ecosystem is predicated on the necessity that the Spotify Machine is always in motion, the statement said.
With these changes, Spotify Technology SA will accelerate into the next chapter for podcasts, with monetisation and audience growth for creators, and a valuable, high margin business for the company itself.
Podcasting Data Points On Spotify:
According to the company, some of the statistics that underline the company's shift in focus on growing its podcast business through global partnerships are:
Consumption has grown more than 1,400%.
Podcast content has increased from 2,00,000 titles to over 5 million shows on Spotify.
There are now more than 100 million podcast listeners on Spotify (10 times growth).
Podcast ad revenue experienced high double-digit growth from 2021 to 2022.