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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%

#441

Post by wombat-man »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #40

I often wonder what kind of work actually happens at Spotify. Pretty much every major change to the software or api since I started using it has made the product worse. Breaking libspotify, pointless UI redesigns, obvious, user-facing bugs that go unfixed for years. Removing features like play queue for long periods. There's metadata errors and even audio corruption in some albums that I actually reported to them yea…

I think it's a lot of small changes being a/b tested. Stuff that you might or might not notice/see. But if it passes the test it's there forever. I'd guess the general goal is to first get you to use spotify more but more importantly get you to listen to content they don't have to pay to license like podcasts and whatnot.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#442

Post by coldpie »

mlrtime wrote: post #307
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #40

I often wonder what kind of work actually happens at Spotify. Pretty much every major change to the software or api since I started using it has made the product worse. Breaking libspotify, pointless UI redesigns, obvious, user-facing bugs that go unfixed for years. Removing features like play queue for long periods. There's metadata errors and even audio corruption in some albums that I actually reported to them yea…

I think this is the issue. 10,000 employees vs bad user experience. Spotify has gotten worse for me as well, I pay for Spotify + SiriusXM. Spotify should be much better, but it's not. I'm thinking of dropping it soon. Why doesn't Spotify still not have a Pandora style radio station? I just want to create 5 or 10 statiosn that auto pick based on certain criteria, does this exist?

Just try a different service. There's a zillion of them out there, all more or less interchangeable. Maybe one has the feature you want.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#443

Post by Gooblebrai »

dmd wrote: post #432
apwell23 wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I worked at groupon when it was taking off and we had around 200 sales ppl calling up and negotiating deals with local business. Everyone back then used to ask me the same question: Why does groupon have 500 ppl, isnt' it just a wordpress site.

People who make CRUD sites think everything is just a CRUD site.

Engineering-bias at its best. Thinking about the product complexity but not about the business

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#444

Post by SkyPuncher »

soderfoo wrote: post #361
mvdtnz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To spell it out for you, $200 million could pay for well over 1,000 employee-years of salaries.

I get what you are saying but you would be surprised how fast financial forecasts balloon at scale. 200 developers @ $150k a year = $30M $200M/$30M = 6.5 years

I think you’re both saying the same thing. Op is saying 1 employee for 1 year is “1 employee-year”.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#446

Post by nemo44x »

alexpotato wrote: post #231
hyperbovine wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't watch either, but judging from the comments, it's the usual story: they are completely beholden to record companies, who own rights to nearly all of their catalog. Thus most of their revenue goes straight back out the door as royalties. Moreover, the recording companies can raise the rates pretty much at-will, which apparently they have done upon seeing Spotify starting to make a bit more money. That is why…

I'm surprised Spotify wouldn't take this to the next step and, borrowing a page from the old industrialists, try to vertically integrate and start their own music label and talent scouting arm. You would think they could pull a "Netflix and House of Cards" to use all of their play data to find exactly which kind of niche singer/songwriter people would want to hear. They could then use their reach + algorithms to floa…

Agreed. I mentioned this is another thread - they need to vertically integrate music. They have all the leverage as the distribution channel and controller of algorithms. To start they’d probably want to buy a label or pay money existing labels can’t afford for the people that can find and attract top talent.

In essence use their size to pay more than record labels and eventually acquire them.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#447

Post by erellsworth »

mlrtime wrote: post #307
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #40

I often wonder what kind of work actually happens at Spotify. Pretty much every major change to the software or api since I started using it has made the product worse. Breaking libspotify, pointless UI redesigns, obvious, user-facing bugs that go unfixed for years. Removing features like play queue for long periods. There's metadata errors and even audio corruption in some albums that I actually reported to them yea…

I think this is the issue. 10,000 employees vs bad user experience. Spotify has gotten worse for me as well, I pay for Spotify + SiriusXM. Spotify should be much better, but it's not. I'm thinking of dropping it soon. Why doesn't Spotify still not have a Pandora style radio station? I just want to create 5 or 10 statiosn that auto pick based on certain criteria, does this exist?

I'm not sure how specific you want your criteria to be, but you can create a Spotify "radio" station based off of any song, band/artist, or playlist. Spotify's discovery capabilities are miles beyond Pandora, in my opinion.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#448

Post by ulfw »

Hakeemmidan wrote: post #445

Why do these mass layoffs keep happening in the software industry? Or is this a global phenomenon that exists across all industries?

Only to a small extend. Mostly it happens in software. And no it's not just "overhiring" (that doesn't happen across so many industries). That's only part of it. We all know with AI we won't need white collar jobs anymore. If I had children I wouldn't allow them to study CS. Not anymore.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#450

Post by gizajob »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #40

I often wonder what kind of work actually happens at Spotify. Pretty much every major change to the software or api since I started using it has made the product worse. Breaking libspotify, pointless UI redesigns, obvious, user-facing bugs that go unfixed for years. Removing features like play queue for long periods. There's metadata errors and even audio corruption in some albums that I actually reported to them yea…

If you have too many UI designers, you’re going to get a lot of UI redesigns. Probably whole devs working on one button each getting laid off today and in future.
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