Spotify to lay off 17% of its workforce in third round of job cuts this year

Spotify is laying off 17% of its workforce of roughly 9,000, its CEO Daniel Ek said Monday, marking the third round of job cuts at the music streaming giant this year.

Ek said in a companywide email that Spotify was taking “substantial action to rightsize our costs” after it took on too many employees in 2020 and 2021 — when cheaper capital allowed for a hiring frenzy that’s no longer sustainable.

The job cuts are set to impact some 1,500 jobs, CNBC reported, citing unnamed sources.

“Over the last two years, we’ve put significant emphasis on building Spotify into a truly great and sustainable business…. While we’ve made worthy strides, as I’ve shared many times, we still have work to do. Economic growth has slowed dramatically and capital has become more expensive. Spotify is not an exception to these realities,” Ek added in the memo, which was also posted to Spotify’s website.