Spotify is about to get smaller—17% smaller. The streaming music service announced its third round of layoffs this year in a Monday blog post from CEO Daniel Ek, who called the downsizing a "strategic reorientation," the AP reports. Ek noted that the new "leaner structure" would help ensure the company's "continued profitability," after what he said had been an effort to expand Spotify via investments in the company's content, marketing, and employees. "We now find ourselves in a very different environment," Ek wrote, citing higher interest rates as one reason for the backtracking. "And despite our efforts to reduce costs this past year, our cost structure for where we need to be is still too big."
Ek added that the company had considered making smaller cuts over the next two years instead of this larger one, but after reviewing the economics of it, he decided it was better to make this kind of hard move now. "To be blunt, many smart, talented, and hard-working people will be departing us," he wrote, per CNN Business. Ek's notice didn't say how many jobs would be affected, but a company rep says it's about 1,500. The first round of Spotify layoffs was in January, when 6% of the staff was pink-slipped, with a second round to follow in June, when another 2% was slashed. The company saw a net loss of about $500 million from January to September. Read the full announcement from Ek here. (More Spotify stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
