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Spotify has announced record profits of over €1billion (£860m), following staff being laid off, subscription prices rising and costs being cut across the board.The growth of the company comes as streaming continues to dominate the music industry, and the platform has gone on to offer its subscribers access to podcasts and audiobooks too.Currently, the Swedish company has around 615million users across the globe, and has invested a huge amount of money in growing the brand since its initial launch back in 2006. However, reports of the profit come following a year of the brand cutting costs and laying off staff.Late last year, Spotify announced that it was cutting down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify reeled in fewer new users overall than it expected in the first quarter of 2024, but the audio-streaming giant touted “record strength” in profitability. Total monthly active users (free and paid) grew 19% year over year to 615 million, a gain of 13 million from the previous quarter — which missed its guidance by 3 million. Spotify said “moderated marketing activity” led to “more normalized growth” following 2023’s record performance (when it added 26 million new MAUs in Q1).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify announced the appointment of Christian Luiga, a senior executive at European defense and security company Saab AB, as its next CFO. Luiga is expected to start in the third quarter of 2024. Ben Kung, Spotify’s VP of financial planning and analysis, will serve as interim CFO until Luiga’s start date.

Spotify has announced that it has entered into a partnership with the live events platform Bandsintown.Founded in 2007, Bandsintown is a website and app that allows users to find information about tours and concerts that are in their area, with artists having the ability to control their own listings.Now, Spotify has confirmed that Bandsintown listings will be directly integrated onto their platform. “Bandsintown is on a mission to help artists get discovered and sell out shows,” said Fabrice Sergent, co-founder of Bandsintown.

Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider has hit out at Spotify, suggesting CEO Daniel Ek “should be taken out and shot” for unfairly compensating artists.The streaming platform has frequently come under fire for the low rates at which it pays artists, which has contributed to many artists struggling to make enough money directly from their music. Recently, Spotify controversially changed its royalty streaming threshold of 1000 plays before songs are able to generate royalties.According to Spotify data, there are around 100million songs on the service, yet only around 37.5million meet the new requirements to generate revenue.Snyder’s criticism for the platform and its CEO, who he didn’t refer to by name, came during an interview with the YouTube podcast The Jeremy White Show.“That guy from Spotify, I wanna tell you, he should be taken out and shot,” Snider said (via Consequence of Sound), presumably referring to Ek.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify said chief financial officer Paul Vogel will leave the company next year and that it has launched a search to find a replacement. Vogel’s last day at Spotify will be March 31, 2024.

Spotify said chief financial officer Paul Vogel will be leaving at the end of March. The news comes several days after the music streamer announced about 1,500 layoffs, some 17% of its workforce.

Tidal has laid off 40 members of staff across multiple departments, amounting to 10 per cent of its total staff.The music streaming service is owned by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s company Block, which has been making layoffs across its many branches, which also include Square and Cash App.As reported by Bloomberg, the layoffs include Jeff Benjamin, a former member of Tidal’s editorial team, along with other members of the editorial staff.In a statement from the company, they said: “As part of Block and its recent announcement to cap the number of employees at the company to focus on business growth, TIDAL has carefully considered how to right-size our team to ensure we are able to continue to build and invest in critical areas of the business.”“We do not take these decisions lightly, and we are sincerely grateful for the contributions of our impacted teammates.”Earlier this week, Spotify also announced that they were cutting down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs. The streaming platform had previously laid off 6 per cent of its staff earlier in the year.Spotify chief executing Daniel Ek said that the recent decision was made as economic growth had “slowed dramatically”.

Spotify has announced it is cutting 17% of its staff, with around 1800 jobs expected to be lost in the process. Chief executive Daniel Ek broke the news on Monday, saying in a public memo that the "difficult" decision was made in reponse to economic growth slowing "dramatically." Ek said "substantial action to rightsize our costs" was required in order for the company to reach its financial targets.

Spotify has announced it will cut down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs.The streaming platform previously laid off 6 per cent of its staff earlier this year in January, saying at the time it was doing so to promote “speed”.This time, chief executive Daniel Ek has said he made the “difficult” decision as economic growth has “slowed dramatically”. Spotify employs around 9,000 people, meaning 1,500 jobs will be lost in the current round of layoffs.“I recognise this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions,” Ek wrote.

Music streaming service Spotify will cut about 17% of its global workforce, becoming the latest big tech company feel the bite of the economy.

Ellise Shafer Spotify is laying off 17% of its global workforce in order to cut costs, CEO Daniel Ek said on Monday. According to the Financial Times, Ek made the announcement in an internal memo sent to staff.

UPDATED with U.S. debut. Spotify, which last month launched audiobooks in the UK and Australia as part of its offerings for Premium subscribers, has expanded the new business to the U.S.

Spotify gave an early peek at its two-week-old Audiobook rollout with chief executive Daniel Ek telling investors, “It’s early days, but we feel good.”

a selfie with them.Journalist Jen Su and her friends spotted the duchess, 42, on their way out to eat on Thursday evening.“Landed in LA and on our way to dinner, we ran into Meghan Markle,” Su captioned the snapshot on Instagram.“Totally low-key and super friendly, nice conversation. #girlsnightout#meghanmarkle #losangeles,” she added.Markle donned a simple fitted Polo Ralph Lauren Oversize Fit Striped Linen Shirt (that retails for $168.00) and aviator sunglasses.The “Suits” alum and her husband, Prince Harry, left the rainy streets of England for the sunny shores of Montecito, California, in 2020.Markle has been keeping an eye on Hollywood for quite some time, as she signed with talent agency WME in April.

Us Weekly on Thursday.“Meghan has a new team around her, and they’ve been strategizing about what mediums will have the most impact.”The 42-year-old former “Suits” star signed with esteemed entertainment agency WME in April. Rumors about a big Hollywood return have been circulating ever since.

Spotify chose to cancel Meghan Markle’s “Archetypes” podcast after just one season, and the company’s CEO is now hinting at the reason.

Spotify is making a major push into the audiobook sector, adding more than 150,000 titles to its premium subscription plans.

failed partnership with Spotify continues to make headlines. Daniel Ek, the chief executive of Spotify, hinted that the highly publicized deal between the royals and the major streaming giant did not succeed because consumers were not impressed.The Duchess and Prince’s Harry’s company Archewell Audio produced a mere 12 podcasts during a two-and-a-half year span, after signing with Spotify in December 2020.During a recent interview with the BBC, host and technology writer Zoe Kleinman asked the CEO if he believed the partnership, which ended on June 15, 2023, was worth the $20M price tag.“You had some pretty big names,” she said.

Spotify has no plans to completely ban AI-generated content from the platform, according to boss Daniel Ek.Earlier this year, a fake collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd was removed from the streaming service as well as other sites like Apple Music, Tidal and YouTube. The song, titled ‘Heart On My Sleeve’, reportedly generated 20million streams overall in under 48 hours.During a new interview with BBC News, Ek claimed there were valid uses of artificial intelligence in making music.However, he said the technology should not be used to impersonate real artists without their consent – as was the case with the faux, unauthorised team-up between Drake and The Weeknd.Ek said that the technique of using AI in music was likely to be debated for “many, many years” to come, and explained that he believes there are three “buckets” of AI use:When asked about the challenge the industry is facing in regulating the use of artificial intelligence, Ek responded: “It is going to be tricky.”He said: “You can imagine someone uploading a song, claiming to be Madonna, even if they’re not.

Spotify has denied claims that users can repeatedly listen to their own uploaded 30-second song in order to receive monthly royalty payments.As BBC News reports, finance analysts at JP Morgan had previously claimed that subscribers to the streaming service could make $1,200 (£960) a month by listening to their track on repeat for 24 hours a day.The apparent trick suggested that Spotify’s royalty payment structure could be manipulated. However, the music platform’s CEO Daniel Ek has now said this is not how the app’s royalties function.The theory was first reported in the Financial Times.

Alisa Finkelstein is a vice president and Clayton Durant is director of emerging media & platforms at MikeWorldWide. As you’ve probably read many times in recent months, Artificial Intelligence is creating a Napster-like moment in the recorded music business.

Spotify had its best quarter ever for new additions but revenue fell short of expectations and the music streamer booked a wider loss on severance and other business charges for the three months ended in June.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Like most earnings calls, Spotify’s tend to be a combination of optimism and deflection amid buzzwords like “flywheels” and “toolboxes,” and co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek is among the best at answering direct questions vaguely — a key survival tool for any business head. But Tuesday’s call, arriving against the backdrop of the company’s first-ever subscriber price increases in the U.S., found Ek and chief financial officer Paul Vogel more defensive than usual as they worked to bolster investor confidence in the face of the dollar-per-month U.S.

Spotify is raising the price of its premium subscriptions, bringing the audio streaming service in line with top competitors.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music As expected, Spotify has finally raised the price of its premium music-streaming subscription in the U.S. to $10.99 per month — the first such price hike since the service launched in the country in 2011. The move comes only after months of pressure from the music industry and musicians — and seeing each of its competitors raise prices to a similar degree. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that such a move was imminent. In wording that seems oddly apologetic and reflects CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek’s long resistance to raising prices, the company made the announcement in a blog post Monday morning.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify is finally set to hike the price of its music streaming subscription in the U.S. to $10.99 per month for an individual plan — up one dollar — according to a Wall Street Journal report. It’s a move that would be a long time in coming and follow similar increases by competitors. When Spotify’s U.S. price increase would go into effect is unclear. The Journal story, citing anonymous sources, said the price hike for United States customers is expected to be announced next week, followed by similar increases in “dozens of markets globally in the coming months.” Spotify has not changed the $9.99-per-month price of the ad-free Premium plan in the U.S. since it launched in 2011.

Even Meghan Markle couldn’t get one of the biggest names in Hollywood to appear on her podcast!

Trevor Noah is moving into podcasting.

Turns out Spotify has been ready to cut ties with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for a while now!