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

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#741

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:42 PM UTC

rez9x wrote: post #649

crazygringo wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is completely backwards. They didn't hire "for the sake of hiring" -- they hired specifically to build up their podcasting and audiobook efforts, which were totally new products within the app. Which they thought were essential to staying competitive -- e.g. what if people start moving over to Amazon instead with its Music+Wondery+Audible, or other competitors? Now it's turned out those bets haven't been as succ…

I recently left Spotify for Apple Music, in large part because of this new development path. I don't want podcasts, audiobooks, etc mixed in with my music. I prefer separate apps. I think what bothered me more was the focus on branching into these new paths without any innovation in the music department--I'm sure there was innovation that wasn't visible to me. I'm tired of the same black and green color scheme. I don…

[deleted]

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#742

Post by 93po » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:42 PM UTC

scarface_74 wrote: post #675

jebarker wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Honestly, what do you expect Spotify to do? Innovate to grow, if growth is the objective. For example, they could better serve the audiophile market with higher quality offerings. Not as much growth there though.

And how does that help them make more money if they still have to always give the record label more money?

same way netflix does - make their own label

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#743

Post by mrbonner » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:44 PM UTC

I didn’t know they have that many people (9000) to work for a single product. I’ve been a subscriber for more than 5 years and the app on the iPhone just gets worse everyday. Why?

- daily updates is gone. This is where I can get a snapshot of all new releases from artists I love. I’m not sure if Release Calendar is the new one but I don’t bother to check.

- I listen to classical and the song title naming is just subpar. For example, “Well-tempered Clavier, Book 1, J.S Bach, Angela Hewitt, Prelude in C Major is too long to be in the title. Especially, the rat if the album is just a repeat alternate between prelude or fugue and the chord.

- recently play list stopped syncing between my phone and my desktop app after 2022 for some reason. Is it a bug or they just stop doing this since it costs more to sync?

I probably won’t switch to a different stream service for now as there is not much differences for me to migrate.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#744

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:44 PM UTC

rorroe53 wrote: post #532

lettergram wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The poor today are the middle class of 15-20 years ago and the kings of 300 years ago. It’s not perfect but a rising tide does raise all ships. Regarding the ultra wealthy, the disparity was actually greater in the past. All that said, you distribute wealth by reducing taxes on the poor and increasing it on wealthy. Alternatively, shifting the growth differential such that the poor grow faster than the wealthy (hard…

Middle class 15-20 years ago was able to buy, or even finance building of their own houses. How many poor you know who do that? Only thing that has really improved is access to cheap Made in China goods, and perhaps plane tickets. But actual necessities like housing are becoming more and more unaffordable.

[deleted]

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#745

Post by keehun » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:45 PM UTC

mrbonner wrote: post #743

I didn’t know they have that many people (9000) to work for a single product. I’ve been a subscriber for more than 5 years and the app on the iPhone just gets worse everyday. Why? - daily updates is gone. This is where I can get a snapshot of all new releases from artists I love. I’m not sure if Release Calendar is the new one but I don’t bother to check. - I listen to classical and the song title naming is just subp…

If you primarily listen to classical music, Apple's new Classical Music app (part of its Music subscription) is *fantastic*.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#746

Post by bogomipz » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:45 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #596

jmarchello wrote: post #495

Anytime I see layoffs like this, All I hear is "We hired for the sake of hiring when money was cheap and we wanted to signal 'growth', But now reality has set in and we need our employees to serve a purpose beyond simply headcount". In my opinion they did these employees a disservice by hiring them in the first place. We need our companies to act more responsibly regardless of the price of capital. Innovate sure, but…

This is completely backwards. They didn't hire "for the sake of hiring" -- they hired specifically to build up their podcasting and audiobook efforts, which were totally new products within the app. Which they thought were essential to staying competitive -- e.g. what if people start moving over to Amazon instead with its Music+Wondery+Audible, or other competitors? Now it's turned out those bets haven't been as succ…

>They didn't hire "for the sake of hiring" -- they hired specifically to build up their podcasting and audiobook efforts, which were totally new products within the app. Which they thought were essential to staying competitive -- e.g. what if people start moving over to Amazon instead with its Music+Wondery+Audible, or other competitors?

If this were true then wouldn't the cuts be limited to the podcasting and audiobook arms of the company i.e. the source of the overstaffing? The announcement however states the cuts are across the entire company - "To align Spotify with our future goals and ensure we are right-sized for the challenges ahead, I have made the difficult decision to reduce our total headcount by approximately 17% across the company."

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#747

Post by tomjakubowski » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:46 PM UTC

Log_out_ wrote: post #738

rez9x wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently left Spotify for Apple Music, in large part because of this new development path. I don't want podcasts, audiobooks, etc mixed in with my music. I prefer separate apps. I think what bothered me more was the focus on branching into these new paths without any innovation in the music department--I'm sure there was innovation that wasn't visible to me. I'm tired of the same black and green color scheme. I don…

What I found thoroughly missing in all music streaming was emotional composition, aka the Algo being able to play music tailored to what situations I I'm experiencing and giving it an arc. Example:im programming and the concentration music goes towards a victorious crescendo once it works.

Part of my dev process at work involves running a (rather) flaky test suite on my laptop. The test suite takes several minutes to run, and it doesn't fail fast. No good for my short attention span.

I wrote a script which runs the test suite in a loop. When the tests fail, it plays horns.aiff (from The Price is Right). When the tests pass it plays the epic Champions League theme music.

The best part is, I can do other stuff while waiting for the flaky tests to pass, without having to remember to check the terminal they're running in. Audio cues are really great.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#748

Post by sbarre » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:47 PM UTC

yCombLinks wrote: post #599

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All I hear is "We hired for the sake of hiring when money was cheap and we wanted to signal 'growth' In a healthy company, I would expect every employee to contribute to the bottom line, either directly or indirectly. They hired these people because they needed them to do a job, a job that somehow helps making the company money. As such, unless there are sudden significant changes to the market and product (which a…

I've been a spotify subscriber for over a decade. Every single update has made the windows version worse at least. They've rebuilt and redesigned it repeatedly, for whose benefit I don't know. Obviously that is just the app side part of the whole org.

I feel the same way, and wonder if it's just product and UX teams justifying their existence?

As a paying customer I don't appreciate being a beta tester for some random UI fiddling.

Never mind that I have things forced on me like podcasts and audiobooks that I will never engage with on Spotify, and that I can't simply hide...

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#749

Post by digger495 » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:49 PM UTC

acjohnson55 wrote: post #462

maxglute wrote: post #102

Should have fired 80% of their employees years ago when service was reasonably feature complete. Not that I don't sympathize with people getting laid off, but feels like past a certain point, more heads changes products faster than can be fixed, and sometimes moving fast degrades what shouldn't have been changed in the first place. NPR acquisition drama aside, pocketcast has like 25 employees that makes the service s…

At every company I've worked at, there are things we want to do that nearly everybody think are a good idea. But we can't do them all, because we have limited capital. So we have to be very strategic. Spotify has developed a huge surface area, because they are attempting to be the one-stop shop for all things audio. The thesis is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and that's what they're selling to…

> there are things we want to do that nearly everybody think are a good idea.

They aren't a good idea. Almost always. For example, "lets put podcasts in spotify". Not a single person I know wanted podcasts in spotify.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#750

Post by robin_reala » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 5:50 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #596

jmarchello wrote: post #495

Anytime I see layoffs like this, All I hear is "We hired for the sake of hiring when money was cheap and we wanted to signal 'growth', But now reality has set in and we need our employees to serve a purpose beyond simply headcount". In my opinion they did these employees a disservice by hiring them in the first place. We need our companies to act more responsibly regardless of the price of capital. Innovate sure, but…

This is completely backwards. They didn't hire "for the sake of hiring" -- they hired specifically to build up their podcasting and audiobook efforts, which were totally new products within the app. Which they thought were essential to staying competitive -- e.g. what if people start moving over to Amazon instead with its Music+Wondery+Audible, or other competitors? Now it's turned out those bets haven't been as succ…

Maybe it’s just me, but as a CEO if you misjudge enough to have to fire a double-digit percentage of your staff shouldn’t you face some consequences, like demotion or losing your job yourself? Daniel only owns 7.5% so it’s not like he’s a majority that can push anything through.