• Digital streaming platform Spotify is looking to begin cutting jobs as early as this week, reports indicate.
• Nearly 10 000 people work at the company which hopes to begin saving costs amid the worldwide economic downturn.
• The exact amount of jobs to be cut has yet to be announced.

Not even a full month into 2023 and tens of thousands of people have already been impacted by a new round of tech industry layoffs. Last week saw Microsoft, Amazon and Google-owner Alphabet announce mass firings.

In a span of three days from 18th January to 20th January, 41 000 people were earmarked for layoffs across the three companies.

And the cuts keep coming with Spotify now reportedly planning to begin firing employees within its business to slash costs. The job culling could come as soon as this week, according to a Bloomberg report.

The exact number of positions looking at the chopping block has not been specified but there are about 9 800 employees at the music streaming mainstay currently.

Spotify will join others in the tech industry that have begun shedding jobs as the pandemic and lockdown-induced boom of the last three years fizzles away.

While many companies foresaw that their enormous profits would continue into 2022 and beyond, a worldwide decrease in demand, increasing interest rates and situations like the Russian invasion of Ukraine have all caused an economic downturn.

One that the tech industry is preparing itself for via mass layoffs.

Even as far into March 2022, Spotify was splurging on deals enacted before the economic future grew dim. The company was reported to have spent around $310 million to purchase the naming rights to the iconic FC Barcelona football stadium.

In October 2022, the company invested $100 000 to boost the careers of 13 podcasters specifically in Africa amid a huge push for podcast content across its platform. Four of these podcasts are from South Africa.

Around the same time, it eliminated 38 of its staff from two of its podcasting studios, namely Gimlet Media and Parcast.

Despite the planned layoffs, the streaming platform is still extremely popular. Last week it revealed that the latest single from Miley Cyrus “Flowers” was its “most-streamed song in a single week in Spotify history.”

[Image – Alexander Shatov on Unsplash]