Over the past four years, Spotify Technology SA has announced a flurry of flashy deals to show how much money it is willing to spend to become a dominant player in the burgeoning podcast industry. In 2019, he paid over $400 million to two podcast studios and a company that makes podcast-making software, and spent hundreds of millions more to sign exclusive deals with some of the world’s biggest podcasters, most notably Joe Rogan. In Los Angeles, they built a podcast campus with 18 studios, theaters and an indoor stage, dubbed “Pod City.” In total, this music streaming service has invested more than $1 billion in his podcasting.
Spotify has changed its strategy abruptly as it seeks to appease investors looking for signs that it will start making steady profits. The company made the announcement on June 5. It will lay off 200 people, or 2% of its workforce, following its previous layoffs in January, with the job cuts mostly in the Talk division, the people said. Sahar Elhabashi, vice president of its podcast business, said the loss was a “difficult but necessary decision” for the company to enter the “next chapter” of its podcasts.
