Spotify to start handing over pink slips as soon as this week: Report

Following other tech giants like Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, Swedish audio streaming and media services provider Spotify is also planning to lay off people and it may start as soon as this week, a report by Bloomberg said. The number of people to be laid off is, however, not specified.

This comes as most of the tech giants have been announcing massive job cuts to lower costs. On Friday, Google's parent Alphabet said that it would lay off 12,000 employees.

In October, Spotify laid off 38 people from its Gimlet Media and Parcast podcast studios. It has a total of 9,800 employees worldwide.

In 2022, the company's shares fell 66 per cent as the investors started turning doubtful if they would receive the returns on massive commitments made to podcasting. In June 2022, the company said that it would turn profitable in the "next one or two years".

Last week, Spotify and seven other companies called on the European Commission to take "swift and decisive action" against Apple over "anti-competitive" and "unfair" practices.

"For years, Apple has imposed unfair restrictions on our businesses. These restrictions hamper our development and harm European consumers. They include the tying of the App Store to Apple's proprietary payment system, with its excessive commissions for app developers; the creation of artificial obstacles that prevent our businesses from freely communicating with our customers; restrictions to developers' access to data of their own users; and capricious changes to terms and conditions," read the letter sent to European Commission.