Categories
Business Tech Lite Technology

Spotify Strikes a Sour Note

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a note to staff that right-sizing the workforce is critical for the company to face the “challenges ahead”….reports Asian Lite News

Music streaming giant Spotify on Monday announced to eliminate about 17 per cent of its workforce across the company as it looks to become “both productive and efficient”.

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a note to staff that right-sizing the workforce is critical for the company to face the “challenges ahead”.

He cited slowing economic growth and increased capital costs as reasons for the layoffs, claiming that the company used lower-cost capital in 2020 and 2021 to invest heavily in the business.

“I have made the difficult decision to reduce our total headcount by approximately 17 per cent across the company. I recognise this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions. To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us,” Ek said.

Spotify employs about 8,800 people, and this job cut move will impact over 1,500 employees, according to TechCrunch.

Under Severance pay, the company will start with a baseline for all employees, with the average employee receiving approximately five months of severance. This will be calculated based on local notice period requirements and employee tenure.

The company will continue to cover healthcare for employees during their severance period. All employees will be eligible for outplacement services for two months.

“I realise that for many, a reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and our performance. We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025,” the CEO wrote.

This is Spotify’s third round of layoffs this year.

In June, the company sacked 200 employees, or 2 per cent of its workforce, from its podcast division as part of a corporate reorganisation, while in January, it slashed 6 per cent of its workforce, or about 600 staffers, globally.

ALSO READ: Dell Enables 2M Indians in Digital Skills

Categories
Tech Lite

Spotify launches new tool for music artists

Showcase budgets begin at $100 and are priced on a CPC — or “cost per click” — basis, meaning Spotify will charge artists for each user based on a budget they can specify…reports Asian Lite News

Music streaming giant Spotify has launched a new tool called “Showcase” that will allow artists to pay to promote their music to listeners on the platform’s Home feed.

With Showcase, artists can display a song or an entire album as a mobile banner, targeted at a specific type of listener from 30 markets at launch. The banners will indicate that a recommendation has been sponsored.

“Showcase is a sponsored recommendation that helps you share your music — whether it’s your newest release, your deepest catalogue cut, or anything in between — at any time to likely listeners across Spotify. It appears as a mobile banner at the top of Spotify’s Home — the most visited place on Spotify,” Spotify said in a blogpost.

To be eligible to book a Showcase, artists need to have at least 1,000 streams over the past 28 days in at least one of the available target markets, and the artist team’s billing country must be set to the US, the company noted.

Showcase budgets begin at $100 and are priced on a CPC — or “cost per click” — basis, meaning Spotify will charge artists for each user based on a budget they can specify.

Moreover, the company said that it will roll out Showcase within the Campaigns tab for eligible artists in the US over the next few weeks, and in the coming months, it will continue to expand access to more artists around the world.

Meanwhile, Spotify has launched a new kind of playlist called ‘daylist’ that changes as per users’ moods or feelings. The daylist updates throughout the day based on users’ past listening habits.

The daylist tool is available to both free and premium users across the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.

ALSO READ-Meghan Markle launches Spotify show