Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

newsroom.spotify.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 495 posts

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#241

Post by Terretta »

gadders wrote: post #14

I got asked to do a survey when I opened the Spotify app last week. All the questions were of a "What would you do if this price rise happened?" and most of the varieties had the family plan going to £20.99. I don't know what they are smoking to think that they're worth more than a Netflix subscription. Video > audio. If they put the family plan price up I'll cancel it and use Prime Music or something.

Apple One which includes Apple Music, family app sharing, family storage, and family privacy (essentially TOR for everyday browsing, except through a privacy preserving tango between Apple and CloudFlare) is a surprisingly good value relative to the standalone music offerings.

https://www.apple.com/apple-one/

Family is $22.95 a month, with 5 other people:

- Apple Music

- Apple TV+

- Apple Arcade

- iCloud+ (with photos and video sharing, email/cal hosting with family domain name, hide my email, private browsing)

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#242

Post by pm90 »

jzb wrote: post #93

I dunno, maybe if Spotify wasn't spending hundreds of million on podcast deals and actually focusing on what its users want, they wouldn't need to lay people off. Any way you slice it, there's no way that the Rogan deal pays for itself. Spotify is stingy AF with the artists that drove people to the service, and then firehoses Rogan with cash and tries to shove podcasts down people's throats. I was a happy Spotify sub…

Right, it seemed like a greedy move. Apple podcast app is just fine imo.

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#243

Post by nsxwolf »

pm90 wrote: post #236
nsxwolf wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't stay after a big round of layoffs for the same reason I'd rather buy stocks when they look like they're going up, not down. The company is signaling that it is not doing well - why shouldn't I leave for a company that is doing well? The only way I'll stay is if you want me to be part of a real plan to turn things around. And my involvement in that has to be rewarded - not just at the successful end of that pr…

I’m assuming that with the major tech companies all laying off it becomes difficult to find another gig.

I'm hoping I don't have to find that out any time soon, but I prefer staying in the space of unknown enterprisey, line-of-business backend orgs. FAANG/MAANG and adjacents seem to be allergic to these roles and I never see their resumes.

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#245

Post by selfawareMammal »

jzb wrote: post #93

I dunno, maybe if Spotify wasn't spending hundreds of million on podcast deals and actually focusing on what its users want, they wouldn't need to lay people off. Any way you slice it, there's no way that the Rogan deal pays for itself. Spotify is stingy AF with the artists that drove people to the service, and then firehoses Rogan with cash and tries to shove podcasts down people's throats. I was a happy Spotify sub…

Sorry but how's Spotify's service worse?

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#246

Post by rurp »

woeirua wrote: post #164

This is an unpopular opinion, but history from the DotCom crash tells us that the layoffs are just getting started. Turns out you can’t run at a loss forever, and when the going gets rough the fastest way to increase profitability is to cut costs. Say what you will about Elon and Twitter, but he definitely proved that the majority of the engineers at Twitter were adding no value to the company. That is probably true…

> Say what you will about Elon and Twitter, but he definitely proved that the majority of the engineers at Twitter were adding no value to the company.

Unless you care about revenue, which has been crushed due to Elon's actions. The company is less healthy than a year ago and still coasting on reserves of previous work and network effects. Musk is spending billions, and refusing to pay valid debts, just to keep the lights on. He admits that the company might end up bankrupt.

It blows my mind that anyone could be touting this as a well run business that others should emulate.

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#247

Post by grey-area »

polygotdomain wrote: post #101

I think we've gotten into this weird spot where tech companies are almost goading each other into layoffs. I don't doubt that there was some overexpansion during COVID, but it seems to have shifted. Tech companies have signaled to the market that staffing numbers were too high (regardless of profitability), and that investors want to see them brought back down. These layoffs don't really seem to be an indication of c…

This is a bubble imploding, this is serious.

The value of money has shifted for good after a decade of excess, there is rampant inflation and there is a recession incoming.

These companies have seen the writing on the wall and are making the first of many layoffs to address this. This started last year and will last another year at least, possibly a few years.

Apparently most eases of this sore are still in denial about it but the reasons are real and presssing.

The other thing this paradigm shift in rates impacts of course is profitless startups which are now worth zero if they can’t turn a profit within a year. Those that can’t will go bust and lay off all employees, thus making the recession deeper.

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#248

Post by survirtual »

jstx1 wrote: post #72
survirtual wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do it because they can. Because most employees are spineless and will fall in line. People making the money we make in the tech industry should be living well below their means, saving, and supplanting the tech giants with worker-owned coops and guilds. If all tech workers united into guilds the corps would come begging us for technical contributions, and we would collectively charge up the ass for it — and all…

> most employees are spineless and will fall in line. I don't get this. It's a layoff - what do you think not spineless and not falling in line looks like?

“If you layoff Bob, I quit”

“If you do these layoffs, all of us will strike”

In other words, unified action among the workers that costs the business significantly more funds than the savings from laying people off.

That is one example of having a spine. There are countless others.

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#249

Post by overgard »

popularrecluse wrote: post #158
paulcole wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can be OK funding differing points of view but not OK funding a specific differing point of view.

We just live in a world now where propagating false and dangerous misinformation is merely offering a differing point of view. We were happy to let subject-matter experts help build the modern world, but then turn on them as we seek out the information that comports with the way we wish the world to be. It's good to be skeptical, but a very significant portion of the population has serious epistemic deficiencies.

Ah "misinformation". (Which seems to be far-left speak for "has a different opinion and I'd rather censor them than argue with them".) Rogan is a comedian and has never claimed any special expertise. If you're worried that people listen to him over the legacy news media, well, what does it say about them that somehow a comedian has more credibility than they do?

Re: Spotify reducing employee base by about 6%

#250

Post by Ekaros »

Lot of talk about productivity. But I really wonder with companies like Spotify. Shouldn't they be at this point pretty mature? And is there really value looking for the next moonshot or big win? Did they actually even need the pool of engineers they had? There is always maintenance and keeping things running, making them better, but how much greenfield work would there be in short term?
Post reply on HN