Spotify—Spotify laid off 15 employees (~3% of podcast staff) at The Ringer and Spotify Studios in March 2026
On March 23, 2026, Spotify laid off 15 employees, about 3% of its podcasting staff, across The Ringer and Spotify Studios, including The Ringer's special projects lead Andrew Gruttadaro and staff writer Miles Surrey, and canceled the sports podcast 'New York, New York with John Jastremski.' Spotify said the cuts were about improving 'execution, speed and alignment across teams' rather than cost-cutting, and that it continues investing in multiformat content and video. The cut is far smaller than Spotify's December 2023 layoff of ~1,500 employees (17% of headcount, already tracked separately); as of Q1 2026 Spotify's total headcount (~7,258-7,407) was continuing a slow multi-year decline, with new co-CEO Gustav Söderström stating on the Q1 2026 earnings call that headcount had 'slightly decreased' even as AI/compute spending per employee rose sharply.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worker Rights | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.295 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (low ×0.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Bloomberg/Variety: Spotify lays off 15 people, about 3% of podcasting staff
Bloomberg and Variety reported Spotify cut 15 jobs in its podcasting group (The Ringer and Spotify Studios) in March 2026, naming affected staff and the canceled 'New York, New York with John Jastremski' show. Spotify declined further comment, saying it does not comment on staffing shifts.