Earlier today, CEO Daniel Ek shared the following note about the company's organizational changes with all Spotify employees.
Team,
As we say in our Band Manifesto, change is the only constant. For this reason, I continue to reiterate that speed is the most defensible strategy a business can have. But speed alone is not enough. We must also operate with efficiency. It's these two things together that will fuel our long-term success. With this in mind, I have some important news to share today.
While we have made great progress in improving speed in the last few years, we haven't focused as much on improving efficiency. We still spend far too much time syncing on slightly different strategies, which slows us down. And in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance. So, in an effort to drive more efficiency, control costs, and speed up decision-making, I have decided to restructure our organization.
To start, we are fundamentally changing how we operate at the top. To do this, I will be centralizing the majority of our engineering and product work under Gustav as Chief Product Officer and the business areas under Alex as Chief Business Officer. I'm happy to say that Gustav and Alex, who have been with Spotify for a long time and have done great work, will be leading these teams as co-presidents, effectively helping me run the company day-to-day. They'll tell you more about what this means in the coming days, but I'm confident that with their leadership, we'll be able to achieve great things for Spotify.
Personally, these changes will allow me to get back to the part where I do my best work-spending more time working on the future of Spotify-and I can't wait to share more about all the things we have coming.
As a part of this change, Dawn Ostroff has decided to depart Spotify. Dawn has made a tremendous mark not only on Spotify, but on the audio industry overall. Because of her efforts, Spotify grew our podcast content by 40x, drove significant innovation in the medium and became the leading music and podcast service in many markets. These investments in audio offered new opportunities for music and podcast creators and also drove new interest in the potential of Spotify's audio advertising. Thanks to her work, Spotify was able to innovate on the ads format itself and more than double the revenue of our advertising business to 1.5 billion. We are enormously grateful for the pivotal role she has played and wish her much success. In the near term, Dawn will assume the role of senior advisor to help facilitate this transition. Alex will take on the responsibility for the content, advertising and licensing work going forward and you'll hear more from him on that.
The need to become more efficient That brings me to the second update. As part of this effort, and to bring our costs more in line, we've made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our number of employees.
Over the next several hours, one-on-one conversations will take place with all impacted employees. And while I believe this decision is right for Spotify, I understand that with our historic focus on growth, many of you will view this as a shift in our culture. But as we evolve and grow as a business, so must our way of working while still staying true to our core values.
To offer some perspective on why we are making this decision, in 2022, the growth of Spotify's OPEX outpaced our revenue growth by 2X. That would have been unsustainable long-term in any climate, but with a challenging macro environment, it would be even more difficult to close the gap. As you are well aware, over the last few months we've made a considerable effort to rein-in costs, but it simply hasn't been enough. So while it is clear this path is the right one for Spotify, it doesn't make it any easier-especially as we think about the many contributions these colleagues have made.
Like many other leaders, I hoped to sustain the strong tailwinds from the pandemic and believed that our broad global business and lower risk to the impact of a slowdown in ads would insulate us. In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth. And for this reason, today, we are reducing our employee base by about 6% across the company. I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today.
My focus now is on ensuring that every employee is treated fairly as they depart. While Katarina will provide more detail on all of the specifics around the ways we are committed to supporting these talented bandmates, the following will apply to all impacted employees:
Severance pay: We will start with a baseline for all employees with the average employee receiving approximately 5 months of severance. This will be calculated based on local notice period requirements and employee tenure.
PTO: All accrued and unused vacation will be paid out to any departing employee.
Healthcare: We will continue to cover healthcare for employees during their severance period.
Immigration support: For employees whose immigration status is connected with their employment, HRBPs are working with each impacted individual in concert with our mobility team.
Career Support: All employees will be eligible for outplacement services for 2 months.
What's Next In almost all respects, we accomplished what we set out to do in 2022 and our overall business continues to perform nicely. But 2023 marks a new chapter. It's my belief that because of these tough decisions, we will be better positioned for the future. We have ambitious goals and nothing has changed in our commitment to achieving them.
We've come a long way in our efforts to build a comprehensive platform for creators of all levels, but there's still much to be done. To truly become the go-to
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
10/06/2026
Get Hands-On with Interfaces & Mic Preamp Brands
If youre after a new interface or preamp, then GearExpo UK is the place to be! Well have a whole host of au...
10/06/2026
November 13-14 2026, The Midway, San Francisco
Following their recent rebranding, MONO Music Conference (formerly Music Expo) have officially announced thei...
10/06/2026
Debut instrument free for limited time
deFORM is the debut release from newly founded developer ebbandflow, and it's being offered as a free download fo...
10/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF advance laser-based drone defense with THORIS LCS Rohde & Schwarz is showcasing THORIS at ILA 2026: A sovereign, end to end counter...
10/06/2026
MAHLE and Rohde & Schwarz develop application for sensor testing of modern drive...
10/06/2026
10 Jun 2026
VEON's Banglalink Brings Every World Cup 2026 Match to Football...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
How to watch every ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 match live on Sky Sports
Where is the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 availabl...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
P RLA brings first-ever Beautifully Clean Oral Care'...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
Sky reveals pulse-pounding first teaser trailer for upco...
10/06/2026
Wuppertal June 10, 2026
Riedel Artist at the Heart of the 14th World Live Neurovascular ConferenceAt the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Li...
09/06/2026
Last month, Spotify hosted PURE FLOWERS LIVE, a special event celebrating the re...
09/06/2026
Last month, RADAR U.K. artist Skye Newman took the stage in East London for a sp...
09/06/2026
Company to cease operating on 30 June 2026
Australian loudspeaker and amplifier manufacturer Wayne Jones Audio have announced that after much consideration,...
09/06/2026
Increases low-end weight and character
The latest plug-in release from Sheffield-based fedDSP aims to offer an all-in-one solution for users in search of mo...
09/06/2026
Introduces AI Studio Assistant, Moises Studio integration & more
Fender Studio have just announced the launch a significant update that brings an array of n...
09/06/2026
The BBC has found its Hercule Poirot.
After Deadline revealed last month that t...
09/06/2026
Filming to take place in Holmfirth
9th June 2026, London: U&GOLD is heading bac...
09/06/2026
X-Rite Pantone Launches Offset360 to Modernize Color Control Across Existing Pre...
09/06/2026
09 Jun 2026
VEON Appoints Serkan Ozturk as Chief of Staff & Strategy Officer Dubai and New York, June 9, 2026 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital oper...
09/06/2026
Tuesday 9 June 2026
Katie Price: Nothing to Hide, a candid and unfiltered accou...
09/06/2026
Enni Continues to Rely on Arvato Systems - And Will Be Using AEP.EnerS4 Billing Solution
Arvato Systems to implement transformation project for SAP S/4HANA Ut...
09/06/2026
These special programmes will highlight RT 's connection with the Irish diaspora
This year, RT is marking 100 years of public broadcasting in Ireland with...
08/06/2026
At Spotify, our commitment to the LGBTQIA community is year-round. Through GLOW, our global music program, we celebrate and amplify the contributions of queer ...
08/06/2026
Get Hands-on With Keyboard & Synth Brands
GearExpo UK wouldn't be complete without some synth action, and we've got some of the industry's most ...
08/06/2026
50 popular in-ear monitoring system profiles added
The latest update for IK Multimedia's headphone-correction system has just arrived, and introduces ca...
08/06/2026
Manny Marroquin signature cans upgraded with SLAM Technology
The flagship model in Audeze's Manny Marroquin Signature Series has just been treated to an...
08/06/2026
Air domain supremacy redefined - New counter UAS, space solutions and directiona...
08/06/2026
he BBC and BritBox have announced that Edward Bluemel (We Might Regret This, My ...
08/06/2026
Plus, 20% off TVs ahead of kick-offMonday 8 June 2026
Sky introduces Real Time...
08/06/2026
FOX Secures Live NFL Game Package in Mexico Starting in Fall 2026 Agreement Features Thursday Night Football, Sunday Games Package, Thanksgiving Day Games, al...
08/06/2026
FOX One, FOX Sports and Indeed Name Austin Franklin and Kevin Akoto as FOX One C...
08/06/2026
Meet us on the show floor
Stand #286310 Discover Nara, the media management tool used by major facilities including Harbor and Molinare.
Nara v2 introduces re...
08/06/2026
L'art de l'Image dans Reflet dans un diamant mort' Une conversation avec le directeur de la photographie Manuel Dacosse, SBC et l' talonneur Pe...
08/06/2026
Embracing today's modern media workflows: FilmLight presents Nara 2.0, with FilmLight API Designed to support the growing demands of today's production ...
08/06/2026
Moderated by Andy Minuth, FilmLight's Colour Workflow Specialist
Wednesday 18 February
6:00pm / Doors open
7:00pm / Presentation in German
8:00pm / Drin...
08/06/2026
Join us on April 14 at 10:00am for a technical roundtable with the Filmlight dev...
08/06/2026
You're invited to FLAPI Classroom The fundamentals of coding and machine-assisted development
These sessions will help you build the skills needed to cre...
08/06/2026
With Sylvain Canaux (St Louis, Paris) and J r me Cloutier (MELS, Montreal)
Wednesday 6 May
Pick your time: 1:00PM / 5:00PM
Note: The presentation will be hel...
08/06/2026
FilmLight, 1107 N El Centro Ave, Los Angeles
Doors open at 3:30pm
Join the FilmLight team on June 9th at 4pm to learn how FilmLight products and APIs can stre...
08/06/2026
The Creators List launched to Help Brands Connect With Top Creators In CannesThe curated directory launched by Tubefilter, Comscore, Whalar Group and Gospel Sta...
08/06/2026
Irish YouTube star DavidMC joins Aisling O'Reilly to tackle all things socce...
07/06/2026
Company introduce 21 new protective covers
Decksaver have just announced their Sping 2026 Drop, which sees a total of 21 new models added to their ever-grow...
07/06/2026
Sunday 7 June 2026
Dynamo Vs Houdini comes to Sky later this year
The last time the world saw Dynamo, he buried himself alive. This weekend, he returned.
Mom...
06/06/2026
Check Out Leading Monitor Brands
We'll have monitors of all shapes and sizes at GearExpo UK, so whether you're looking to upgrade or expand your set...
Earlier today, CEO Daniel Ek shared the following note about the company's organizational changes with all Spotify employees.
