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Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

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Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#801

Post by amanda99 »

deng wrote: post #773

Spotify is a completely mistery to me. I'm asking: What does Spotify really have ? They don't own the music. They don't own podcasts (OK, they may have some exclusives like Rogan). All they have is a license, a bit of software, and lots of users. How will they ever turn a profit? What's the end game here? I just switched my whole family from Spotify to Deezer and it was literally a matter of minutes. There are even s…

They are a music distributor, and they have good relationships with the rights holders and will do their legwork for them.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#802

Post by BhavdeepSethi »

digger495 wrote: post #749
acjohnson55 wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wanted podcasts in Spotify, but you don't know me. Sample bias?

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#803

Post by scarface_74 »

fragmede wrote: post #712
scarface_74 wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep reading this. I don’t know how much Spotify pays or if it pays above market. But I much rather have a high paying job - especially if it doesn’t require relocation and then get laid off than not have a high paying role at all. A job is not a marriage, it’s more like a a semi serious dating relationship. I’ve had 9 jobs in 27 years and 7 since 2008. A job is merely a method to exchange labor for money to suppor…

Nine serious relationships in 27 years, but no marriage? I bet you live in one of those heathen countries where sex before marriage is legal, don't you? If you weren't allowed to have sex before marriage, would you still be unmarried after 27 years of relationships? Sweden, where Spotify is headquartered, is 8,600 kilometers from the San Francisco VC-backed tech scene, and is just as culturally removed from it as wel…

That’s the first time I’ve heard my analogy to job - relationships being taken to its logical extreme.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#804

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

deng wrote: post #773

Spotify is a completely mistery to me. I'm asking: What does Spotify really have ? They don't own the music. They don't own podcasts (OK, they may have some exclusives like Rogan). All they have is a license, a bit of software, and lots of users. How will they ever turn a profit? What's the end game here? I just switched my whole family from Spotify to Deezer and it was literally a matter of minutes. There are even s…

Yeah it's just playlists and network effects, mostly.

There's a Spotify playlist for everything, young people regularly share Spotify playlists each other, and for many: the hardest part about switching to another service is losing access to those playlists.

The "official" playlists provide two other functions. One is to initially amplify artists. Record labels can buy slots on these playlists, just like they used to buy airtime on the FM radio stations of yesteryear.

The second is that Spotify can use its own filler muzak on its playlists to keep licensing costs down. E.g. they pay a pianist to play generic "Christmas piano music," make up an artist name, and put a bunch of those songs on its official holiday playlists.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#805

Post by zeroonetwothree »

dalbasal wrote: post #775

So... Bodybuilders do this thing called "bulking and cutting." The best way to add muscle fast is to overeat. Work out lots. Sleep lots. Eat lots. You get fat, but you also get muscular because food is never a limiting factor. Then, they lose the extra fat with a crash diet. Google, FB and such are such money machines that they never have to cut. They can just bulk. The others... they want some of that rapid growth p…

This analogy doesn’t seem to add any explanatory power.

Corporations can’t magically know the optimal number of employees to maximize profits. And even if they could this will change over time. So we should expect them to cut when they have too many and hire when they have too few.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#806

Post by MuffinFlavored »

guyzero wrote: post #799
deng wrote: post #773

Spotify is a completely mistery to me. I'm asking: What does Spotify really have ? They don't own the music. They don't own podcasts (OK, they may have some exclusives like Rogan). All they have is a license, a bit of software, and lots of users. How will they ever turn a profit? What's the end game here? I just switched my whole family from Spotify to Deezer and it was literally a matter of minutes. There are even s…

Spotify is a sales channel. Walmart doesn't actually make anything, US car dealerships don't make anything. But they have customers and that's all it takes to sell something. And, strangely enough, once a sales channel is big enough it can begin taking a bigger slice of profits and telling suppliers what they should be doing (a la Walmart).

Walmart doesn’t technically make anything (not sure if it’s true to be honest) but they probably “enable” a lot of manufacturers to “make things” under their Great Value brand

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#807

Post by CydeWeys »

itsoktocry wrote: post #795
Hackbraten wrote: post #789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify Connect is a real game changer. I tap a song on the web player and it streams it on our living room amp, which supports it natively. No apps involved whatsoever.

> Spotify Connect is a real game changer. That sounds like a minor quality of life feature, hardly a "game changer". Do you think this is impossible for other companies to replicate?

Have they replicated it widely though, and does their stuff work as seamlessly as Spotify's? Rather than look at hypotheticals about what others might offer, look at the present overall experience.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#808

Post by blehn »

dalbasal wrote: post #775

So... Bodybuilders do this thing called "bulking and cutting." The best way to add muscle fast is to overeat. Work out lots. Sleep lots. Eat lots. You get fat, but you also get muscular because food is never a limiting factor. Then, they lose the extra fat with a crash diet. Google, FB and such are such money machines that they never have to cut. They can just bulk. The others... they want some of that rapid growth p…

What "muscle" did spotify add? Not sure the metaphor works. It's bloat from bad management and copying what other companies are doing.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#809

Post by mvdtnz »

alecco wrote: post #438
yourusername wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least Rogan is still one of the most popular podcasters in the world. They paid a similar ammount for Gimlet and that company is now completely defunct and all their hit podcasts either jumped ship or stopped. So that was probably a worse investment.

Or $25m (2019) for two podcasts featuring the Obamas. They didn't bother to make frequent appearances and attributed the poor audience figures to Spotify's exclusive rights.

Whoa I hadn't heard about this one. That's madness.

Re: Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%

#810

Post by piva00 »

digger495 wrote: post #749
acjohnson55 wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I didn't want podcasts, on the other hand I have a few friends who listen to podcasts exclusively on Spotify because they were already listening to music on it.

It might not be a good idea for you, or for me, but there's value on providing it. The churn from adding podcasts was probably low enough to make it worthwhile as a business.

Exclusive podcasts on the other hand seem to have backfired immensely.

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