Spotify has closed its first ever studio dedicated to creating original podcast content.
Spotify Studios was the first podcast studio the streaming company ever set up. Now an unnamed employee has told The Verge that the streaming giant’s 10 to 15-person-strong studio will be disbanded on January 21.
It seems some employees are being reassigned, while others are being let go with a two-month severance package. Studio head Gina Delvac appears to be among those on the chopping block.
The Spotify Studios podcast team was known internally as Studio 4, and was responsible for producing the likes of Dissect, Chapo: Kingpin on Trial, and Amy Schumer Presents: 3 Girls 1 Keith.
It essentially represented all of Spotify’s initial podcast efforts – as well as its staff – prior to its acquisition of the Parcast, Gimlet, and The Ringer networks.
According to a note to staff, Spotify’s head of US studios and video Julie McNamara said that the closing of Studio 4 would allow the company to “move faster and make more significant progress and facilitate more effective collaboration across our organization.”
The inside source paints a picture of a studio that was “intentionally disregarded in explanations about metrics, and growth, and listenership” by the wider company.
It hasn’t been a particularly good few days for Spotify fans. Earlier in the week, the company acknowledged that its much-publicised Spotify HiFi lossless streaming service had been delayed indefinitely, after missing its 2021 launch window.
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