Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17% • Hacker News Board

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#11

Post by wlesieutre » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:52 AM UTC

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #4

thiago_fm wrote: post #3

They need a bigger cut. 17% will not have a big enough impact to its bottom line. They need to have enough money to invest in other initiatives, as the business they are in is proven to be margin-thin. Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given enough time, if they don't find a moat to be built

>They need a bigger cut. 17% will not have a big enough impact to its bottom line. What's stopping them from bigger cuts? We've seen that big SW products can run on lean teams(whatsapp, post-Musk Twitter) and we know many large tech companies are overloaded with way more workers than they need to run(Google), just because they could overhire when money was free. >Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given eno…

Google Play Music, YouTube Music, YouTube Music Premium, YouTube Red, now YouTube Premium.

Who knows what Google’s music play will be next year? Not Google. Media is second only to Messaging for their lack of a consistent long term strategy.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#12

Post by vlovich123 » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:53 AM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #8

thiago_fm wrote: post #3

They need a bigger cut. 17% will not have a big enough impact to its bottom line. They need to have enough money to invest in other initiatives, as the business they are in is proven to be margin-thin. Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given enough time, if they don't find a moat to be built

> Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given enough time, if they don't find a moat to be built I doubt it. Apple is restricted to Apple devices. As for Amazon, the same argument could be made about Prime Video eating Netflix, and that never seemed to happen. On top of that, as far as I know, Spotify is profitable.

Apple Music is not restricted to Apple devices afaik: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.andr...

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#13

Post by fooker » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:53 AM UTC

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #4

thiago_fm wrote: post #3

They need a bigger cut. 17% will not have a big enough impact to its bottom line. They need to have enough money to invest in other initiatives, as the business they are in is proven to be margin-thin. Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given enough time, if they don't find a moat to be built

>They need a bigger cut. 17% will not have a big enough impact to its bottom line. What's stopping them from bigger cuts? We've seen that big SW products can run on lean teams(whatsapp, post-Musk Twitter) and we know many large tech companies are overloaded with way more workers than they need to run(Google), just because they could overhire when money was free. >Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given eno…

For anything other than American and maybe European music, YouTube Music is so much better nowadays wrt availability. YouTube Music has stellar quality of recommendations too.

But Google could easily do a Google and sabotage the product at some point.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#14

Post by rob74 » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:53 AM UTC

> Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to rightsize our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives.

or, otherwise said: "we fired you to make our bottom line look nicer"

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#15

Post by ardit33 » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:53 AM UTC

Sad to see this happening to my former co-workers. At least it looks like the severance seems to be generous.

"We will start with a baseline for all employees, with the average employee receiving approximately five months of severance."

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#16

Post by anon23432343 » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:54 AM UTC

mvdtnz wrote: post #7

I wonder how those losing their jobs feel about Spotify's reported $200 million investment in Joe Rogan now.

It was and still is a stupid decision to buy Joe Rogan. I don't get why people listen to him... He is not funny nor smart. It sometimes feels you get better value when watching morning tv shows...

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#17

Post by surgical_fire » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:54 AM UTC

techstacktoe wrote: post #2

All things considered, the note seems honest - lays out the facts and considerations. The severance package seems quite generous as well.

Agreed. And the considerations they made seem to be factual too.

I think this was the first corporate notice about layoffs that didn't read like absolute bullshit.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#18

Post by ardit33 » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:55 AM UTC

thiago_fm wrote: post #3

They need a bigger cut. 17% will not have a big enough impact to its bottom line. They need to have enough money to invest in other initiatives, as the business they are in is proven to be margin-thin. Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given enough time, if they don't find a moat to be built

17% is a huge cut. More than that and you end up damaging operations. Look what is happening to X / Twitter.

PS. Spotify had already two layoffs, once 6% in Jan 2023 and 2% in June. This combined seems like a 25% ish cut.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#19

Post by anon23432343 » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:56 AM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #8

thiago_fm wrote: post #3

They need a bigger cut. 17% will not have a big enough impact to its bottom line. They need to have enough money to invest in other initiatives, as the business they are in is proven to be margin-thin. Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given enough time, if they don't find a moat to be built

> Apple and Amazon will eventually eat Spotify given enough time, if they don't find a moat to be built I doubt it. Apple is restricted to Apple devices. As for Amazon, the same argument could be made about Prime Video eating Netflix, and that never seemed to happen. On top of that, as far as I know, Spotify is profitable.

You can listen to apple music even via web interface and it has an android app and works on android tv and android auto.

So pretty much everywhere.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#20

Post by 10u152 » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 7:57 AM UTC

anon23432343 wrote: post #16

mvdtnz wrote: post #7

I wonder how those losing their jobs feel about Spotify's reported $200 million investment in Joe Rogan now.

It was and still is a stupid decision to buy Joe Rogan. I don't get why people listen to him... He is not funny nor smart. It sometimes feels you get better value when watching morning tv shows...

You don’t listen to Joe Rogan to listen to Joe Rogan. You listen because he has the most interesting guests on.