Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 11:15AM 
Monday, December 4, 2023 at 8:59PM 
Photo: @felipepelaquim / Unsplash
Spotify will cut 1,500 jobs, its third round of layoffs this year, CEO Daniel Ek said Monday. He said the music-streaming company needs to slash costs and boost efficiency in a tough economy. The layoffs are part of a big strategy shift that will take Spotify back to its startup roots after a spending spree increased its subscribers but not its profits.
Affected staff will get about five months of severance pay. Spotify, which has more than 9,000 employees, followed other tech giants in reducing headcount as the global economy slowed.
Friday, August 18, 2023 at 11:03AM 
Spotify's algorithm has been promoting podcasts with white noise content, such as waves, vacuums, and fans, to its listeners who use them to relax or sleep. An internal document reveals these podcasts account for three million hours of consumption every day. And some creators supposedly make up to USD 18,000 a month using Spotify's free hosting software Anchor.
However, Spotify is reportedly not happy with this situation, as white noise podcasts are less profitable than other types of programming. The company considered removing them or replacing them with "comparable programming" that would save USD 38 million a year. Some users and creators noticed that their white noise podcasts had disappeared for a while, but Spotify denied any intentional action. The company said it still has white noise podcasts on its platform.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 10:52AM 
Leaked Spotify HiFi interface (Image: Jane Manchun Wong / Twitter)
Spotify may soon launch a new subscription tier with lossless audio streaming, Bloomberg reports. The tier, internally called "Supremium," could debut later this year in some markets outside the US. Spotify first announced its plans for lossless streaming, dubbed "Spotify HiFi," in February 2021 but has yet to deliver on the feature.
Spotify may have delayed the move due to its rivals, Amazon Music and Apple Music, which added lossless streaming to their standard plans at no extra cost.
