TLDR: Spotify fired about 1,500 people citing easy capital and over hiring as the cause
Spotify has recently laid off 17% of their total workforce, which equates to about 1,500 people. To current employees, management has cited that in previous years with access to easy capital and over hiring to compete in an arms race against other tech firms led to the current position Spotify found itself in.
News broke just after Spotify announced their first profitable quarter since 2021. However it seems their investors are getting tired of their delayed full profitability and not hitting their goals. Spotify cut previously 8% earlier this year in different departments to reduce costs. Worldwide, tech companies have cut over 250,000 jobs this past year according to layoffs.fyi – a site tracking layoffs in tech.
Based on LinkedIn searches conducted by our sales team, Spotify currently shows 14K total employees. Leveraging Sales Navigator we can see there are 866 total sales persons in the company, globally – a total of 6% of the company.
The Pipeline Press team reached out to multiple sales people listed and have yet to receive a comment. Should a comment be returned we will update accordingly.
Severance Package?
Spotify leadership has announced they are providing 5 months of severance to those laid off. Similar to other tech companies, SalesForce also provided 5 months pay, Google provided 16 weeks + 2 weeks per each year of tenure, Meta gave a similar severance package as Google, Twitter (X.com) gave 3 months (although accused of not paying out).
Additionally Spotify will provide pay out for all accrued and unused PTO in conjunction to healthcare coverage for 5 months and outplacement support for 2 months.
Consumers Getting Screwed?
We’re no economists, but if the investors are not happy with the performance and are tired of waiting for that sweet ROI, seems like the price of the service will go up.
