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

Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

newsroom.spotify.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 1001 posts

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#81

Post by coryrc »

Roritharr wrote: post #59
anon23432343 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Would you say that about any other type of media/culture/art you dislike? "I don't get why people like the Mona Lisa, the painting is neither original nor particularly well done" Is just as much a subjective statement. JRE is, by most released figures the top interview podcast on the planet, his interviews regularly move Charts of third party media like Book Bestseller Lists and Music Charts. There obviously is a hug…

> I can only assume their agreement over 200M was based on some pretty solid math.

Working at Microsoft during the Ballmer era and seeing the number of multi-billion-dollar acquisitions written-down to nothing, I would never assume corporations spend large amounts wisely.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#82

Post by anon23432343 »

10u152 wrote: post #20
anon23432343 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And lets people spread fake news and stupid theories.

Just because they are "interesting" they should not get a free promo.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#83

Post by rapsey »

jamesblonde wrote: post #78

Why did this drop off the front page after a couple of mins? Loads of people seem interested. @dang ?

I assume because HN keeps culture wars/political discussions down in favor of technical discussions. HN is quite heavily moderated and thank god for that.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#84

Post by rowanG077 »

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 watch Joe Rogan for Joe Rogan. You watch Joe Rogan for the guests. I love his episodes with Elon Musk.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#86

Post by rowanG077 »

anon23432343 wrote: post #82
10u152 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And lets people spread fake news and stupid theories. Just because they are "interesting" they should not get a free promo.

That's precisely what people like about it. Anyone can come on his show. No matter how batshit crazy. Many people don't want to be coddled and protected from viewpoints other people have decided are fake news or stupid. They can make up the balance themselves.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#87

Post by thewildginger »

pembrook wrote: post #71
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

Before trialing the iTunes franken-nightmare that is Apple Music, I would have probably agreed with you. However, after that experience, I'm starting to think there's no way in hell a massive multi-product conglomerate like Apple/Amazon is going to overtake a single-product music streamer like Spotify. Apple/Amazon are clearly stretched too thin, and in a worse strategic position on audio due to the way the licensing…

This is an anecdote, and maybe it's just coincidental timing, but these kinds of operational choices do not work well in a company focused on a single product across multiple devices. Losing so many workers so quickly means a loss in productivity on the issues the platform has, and Spotify has many. Since November there has been an issue on PS5 where any podcast over an hour will not play on PlayStation(so, basically all podcasts). People have figured out the issue, and Spotify has not moved on it.

When you offer a single service and the benefit is being device agnostic, "cutting costs" by wasting time hiring people you probably didn't need to hire only to fire them a year or two later means an amplified disruption that will lose customers.

But hey, board members who jerk each other off once a month in a conference call who are already rich made a little more money by hiring a bunch of people only to fire them later and at a huge operational waste.

This is how our world works and it's bs.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#88

Post by rob74 »

hackernewds wrote: post #43
surgical_fire wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Er... There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, we do live in a world where businesses are supposed to be profitable. Companies hire and companies fire, that is part of the deal. One thing is to have layoffs when you are raking in record profits. This doesn't seem to be the case. The text makes a decent enough case.

sure, but call a spade a spade instead of making the layoffs seem mandatory. there are inputs to financial goals - including executive greed.

Or stock market greed... of course, if you subscribe to the "greed is good" school of thought, you may also see that as positive.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#89

Post by rapsey »

epistasis wrote: post #37
baby wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like you’re implying something but I don’t get it.

The implication I see is that the $200M was not worth it. I don't know their financials, but it seems quite unlikely that a single podcast would be worth that valuation.

Rogan was not making that much less on youtube. Keep in mind pre-spotify he was literally making NFL numbers for listeners+viewers per episode.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#90

Post by Roritharr »

coryrc wrote: post #81
Roritharr wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you say that about any other type of media/culture/art you dislike? "I don't get why people like the Mona Lisa, the painting is neither original nor particularly well done" Is just as much a subjective statement. JRE is, by most released figures the top interview podcast on the planet, his interviews regularly move Charts of third party media like Book Bestseller Lists and Music Charts. There obviously is a hug…

> I can only assume their agreement over 200M was based on some pretty solid math. Working at Microsoft during the Ballmer era and seeing the number of multi-billion-dollar acquisitions written-down to nothing, I would never assume corporations spend large amounts wisely.

You certainly have a point there, but I also remember being absolutely wrong about the Minecraft aquisition which has now paid for itself multiple times.

Your math doesn't have to work out, even if it's solid.

Post reply on HN