STOCKHOLM – Music-streaming giant Spotify said on Dec 4 it would lay off around 1,500 employees, or 17 per cent of its headcount, to bring down costs.

It already let 600 of its employees go in January and 200 more in June.

After a round of job cuts at the start of 2023 by tech companies, some have begun reducing their workforce again, with announcements coming from Amazon to Microsoft-owned LinkedIn.

In a letter to employees, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said the company hired more in 2020 and 2021 due to the lower cost of capital and, while its output has increased, much of it was linked to having more resources.

In the third quarter, the company swung to a profit, aided by price hikes in its streaming services and growth in subscribers in all regions, and forecast that its number of monthly listeners would reach 601 million in the holiday quarter.

Mr Ek told Reuters at that time the company was still focusing on efficiencies to get more out of each dollar.

On Dec 4, he said a reduction of this size would feel surprisingly large, given the recent positive earnings report and its performance.

“By most metrics, we were more productive but less efficient. We need to be both,” Mr Ek said.

“We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025,” he said.

“Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to right-size our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives,” he said. REUTERS