Spotify’s chief financial officer will leave the music-streaming giant in the approaching months, the company said — just three days after it revealed plans to put off 17% of its workforce within the third round of job cuts this yr.
Paul Vogel — who joined Spotify in 2016 as the top of investor relations and was tapped for the CFO position in 2020 — “might be leaving the company on March 31, 2024,” Spotify said in a press release.
In an announcement, CEO Daniel Ek said Spotify has initiated the seek for a recent CFO. Within the meantime, Ben Kung, vp of financial planning and evaluation, will tackle Vogel’s previous responsibilities.
“Spotify has launched into an evolution over the past two years to bring our spending more according to market expectations while also funding the numerous growth opportunities we proceed to discover,” Ek said in an announcement.
“I’ve talked lots with Paul concerning the have to balance these two objectives rigorously. Over time, we’ve come to the conclusion that Spotify is entering a recent phase and desires a CFO with a unique mix of experiences,” he added.
“In consequence, we’ve decided to part ways.”
Representatives for Spotify didn’t immediately reply to The Post’s request for comment.
Vogel’s imminent departure caps a dreadful week on the streaming giant, which announced in a blog post on Monday that it could be handing 17% of its roughly 9,000 staffers pink slips.
Ek said in a companywide email that Spotify was taking “substantial motion to rightsize our costs” following its mass hiring coming out of the COVID years, when the benchmark federal funds rate hovered around 3%.
By 2022, the Federal Reserve implemented an aggressive tightening regime that’s sent rates of interest to its current 22-year high, between 5.25% and 5.5% — a blow to financials for consumers and firms, including Spotify.
Spotify’s latest job cuts are set to affect some 1,500 jobs, and terminated employees will receive “roughly five months of severance,” accrued and unused paid time off and medical insurance in the course of the severance period, in accordance with Ek.
“Being lean just isn’t just an option but a necessity,” Spotify’s 40-year-old billionaire boss added within the 1,000-word note shared earlier this week.
The Stockholm, Sweden-based company has turn out to be leaner throughout 2023, starting the yr with a 6% workforce reduction that bid adieu to 600 staffers, including he company’s chief content and promoting business officer, Dawn Ostroff.
On the time, Ek sent an identical email to staffers notifying them that the company was spending an excessive amount of money and was struggling to rein in costs despite “a substantial effort” to achieve this.
Spotify then laid off 2% of staff, akin to about 200 roles, in June following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s highly-publicized podcasting flop.
The streaming giant reportedly paid the Duchess of Sussex over $18 million for her “Archetypes” podcast launched last summer, though its struggle to nab a top spot on the Spotify charts pushed the company to let a big number of staffers go resulting from the error in judgment.
Markle’s multimillion-dollar payday was part of a bigger, $1 billion bet on podcasting that has seen top podcasters Joe Rogan, Alex Cooper and Emma Chamberlain bringing in significant windfalls as Spotify has needed to lay off staffers behind the scenes in an effort to accommodate its investment.
Nevertheless, Rogan’s rumored to take his wildly-popular “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast — which attracts an estimated 11 million listeners per episode — to a rival platform when his exclusive licensing cope with Spotify expires next yr.
Spotify reportedly paid Rogan $200 million in 2020 as part of their agreement, but may very well be forced to dish out more to maintain the lucrative podcast host.
Rogan has a range of options, including striking out on his own by making a media company that will distribute the podcast in addition to produce other content that will appeal to his fan base, said analysts, who consider Rogan is in the motive force’s seat.
An alternative choice could also be joining forces with Rogan’s good friend Elon Musk, the Tesla mogul who famously smoked pot on Rogan’s podcast and got in trouble for it.
Meanwhile, Spotify has been struggling to show a profit. In an apparent move to achieve this, it implemented a $1 price increase across its US plans in July. Its premium single tier now starts at $10.99, duo at $14.99, family at $16.99 and the scholar plan at $5.99.
It has also been expanding into audio books, and is predicted to incorporate access to book recordings in its rumored $20-a-month “Supremium” tier.
In line with renowned blogger Chris Messina, Spotify is predicted to rollout its priciest monthly subscription option in the approaching months, giving listeners access to a “sound capsule” personalized to every user, in addition to “24-bit lossless audio” — also often known as “high fidelity” or “HiFi.”
Users who subscribe to the Supremium tier may even reportedly have the choice of listening to 30 hours of audio books monthly in addition to the power to sort one’s library by mood, activity, and genre.
The more-expensive subscription option is an evident move to right Spotify’s profits after it reported a $503 million loss in the primary nine months of this yr.
Last yr, during Spotify’s first investor day since going public, Ek announced ambitious growth targets, including that he wants the company to be profitable by 2024, and that he desires to generate $100 billion in revenue by 2030.
Spotify, which is listed on the Latest York Stock Exchange, was up over 1%, at $195,82, in premarket trading hours on Friday.