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Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

newsroom.spotify.com

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Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#981

Post by RamblingCTO »

mrWiz wrote: post #622
RamblingCTO wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still hate the change about the "add to playlist/like" button with all my heart. I don't want to like all the songs I add to playlists. I have a few hundred playlists with a looooot of songs (I listened to 86000 minutes last year of over 4000 artists ...). That change was utterly idiotic

I've always used that button to "like" songs and used the "Add To Playlist" item under the ellipses menu to add things to a particular playlist. What was your process like before the change, and what is it now?

Before you had two buttons. I'd like songs I really like and add the rest to specific playlists. Now I have to do the cumbersome route via the elipsis, yes. It's just way harder and I do it less. I also still like songs on accident because the button is a fucking plus and not a heart. No idea which idiot at spotify proposed that.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#982

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

jes5199 wrote: post #879
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…

I think that beyond some relatively small number, engineering headcount functions as a demonstration of wealth - it doesn't actually make the product better, it doesn't make you ship faster (Brooks's law). but it makes you look big and important and justifies your market cap

Sales scales as O(N), eng/product should scale at sqrt or log. Ideally, obviously.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#983

Post by averageRoyalty »

firecall wrote: post #919
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…

For me it’s the forcing of Podcasts down my throat that I hate. No Spotify, I do not want to listen to Joe Rogan and other right wing podcasts. Just let me hide Podcasts already :-(

I don't care what American "wing" they are, I don't want podcasts and don't appreciate getting ads for them on the "ad-free" service I pay for.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#984

Post by elicksaur »

jes5199 wrote: post #879
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…

I think that beyond some relatively small number, engineering headcount functions as a demonstration of wealth - it doesn't actually make the product better, it doesn't make you ship faster (Brooks's law). but it makes you look big and important and justifies your market cap

I want to like this theory, and it seems like there is some social clout aspect to the phenomenon.

But, the bump these companies get in the stock market whenever they do a round of layoffs indicates the market cap is justified by what you would expect.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#985

Post by averageRoyalty »

happytiger wrote: post #155
sigilis wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to the technical work of keeping the servers running and the infra reliable, there is probably a great deal of work getting content licensing deals, working on marketing, managing the whole edifice, and stuff like that. They need a huge number of content “suppliers” to get basically every song in every country. They undoubtedly have a large number of developers working on apps for every platform, keeping…

Maybe. But for perspective it’s approximately 1/40th of the number of people that were employed at the peak of the Apollo moon landing missions (400,000 people) and that required the support of over 20,000 firms and universities. It’s a LOT of humans for streaming music service.

Apollo wasn't travelling all over 100+ countries scooping up podcasts and speaking to growing artists though. Your comparison is weird, the goals are quite different.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#986

Post by seoulbran »

firecall wrote: post #919
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…

For me it’s the forcing of Podcasts down my throat that I hate. No Spotify, I do not want to listen to Joe Rogan and other right wing podcasts. Just let me hide Podcasts already :-(

I may be in the minority here but I still enjoy the Joe Rogan Experience. As an avid listener the past 12 years I can tell you he is not "right wing" in any way. He was a liberal and believes the left "left him behind" when progressivism hijacked the democratic party. Most intellectually honest humans agree with him.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#987

Post by mdhen »

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…

I can reccomend deezer. I switched away from spotify last year and ended up trying like 5 different options before settling on deezer. No complaints, great quality streams (lossless), can upload your own songs and their recommendations system is really good.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#988

Post by stemlord »

byyll wrote: post #248

Can someone explain to me why a company that is about streaming mp3s needs 9500 employees? That just sounds extremely inefficient to me. They don't even have native desktop apps.

I could understand so many employees for seemingly simple-ish tech services like this if 9000 of them are working in the customer support / tech support department. Wishful thinking though I guess.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#990

Post by olyjohn »

Cub3 wrote: post #948
keehun wrote: post #745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The feature I miss that spotify has is being able to control music playing on my desktop from my phone or vice versa

That's the thing I loved most about Spotify. Unfortunately their "radio" sucks. It generates a 1 time playlist of 50 songs. Pandora has the shittiest interfaces ever, but it does a damn good job DJing for me. Most of the time, I just want to turn it on, pick a genre and let it go. I don't want to listen to the same 50 songs over and over in the same order.
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