Spotify cancels 11 authentic podcasts, lays off beneath 5% of workers • TechCrunch

Spotify is pulling 11 authentic podcasts from the platform, which is able to affect studios Parcast and Gimlet and contain lower than 5% layoffs, a supply conversant in the matter confirmed to TechCrunch. Spotify will even reassign some workers to different podcasts, we perceive.

Reached for remark, Spotify stated it doesn’t remark publicly on staffing adjustments.

Over the following couple of months, podcasts leaving the platform embody Gimlet’s “Find out how to Save a Planet,” “Crime Present,” “Each Little Factor,” in addition to Parcast’s “Medical Murders,” “Feminine Criminals,” “Crimes of Ardour,” “Dictator,” “Mythology,” “Haunted Locations” and “City Legends.”

Within the second quarter of 2023, Spotify will even say goodbye to “Horoscope Immediately.”

That is the primary time Spotify has made a bunch cancellation of podcasts. The transfer was doubtless made to assist strengthen its slate of authentic and unique (O&E) podcasts, which embody hit exhibits “Batman Unburied,” “Name Her Daddy” and the newly launched Kim Kardashian’s “The System: The Case of Kevin Keith.”

Just like cancellations within the TV business, Spotify seems to be hunting down the duds. This might make room for the a number of upcoming O&E (authentic and unique) titles that the corporate intends to announce within the weeks and months forward, we hear.

Total, the music streaming platform has a complete of 500+ O&E podcasts produced throughout its 4 in-house studios, Spotify Studios, The Ringer, Parcast and Gimlet.

The cancellations didn’t affect Spotify Studios and The Ringer.

Final month, Spotify launched over 300,000 audiobooks, a brand new function that places the corporate in direct competitors with high audiobook suppliers Audible, Audiobooks, Google and Nook, amongst others.