Spotify Closes Its Podcast Studio

Spotify has disbanded its podcast studio and has laid off some of its team, The Verge reported Tuesday (Jan. 11).

Among those let go was studio head Gina Delvac. According to one employee, Studio 4, also known as Spotify Studios, had around 10 to 15 employees and put out shows including Dissect and Chapo: Kingpin on Trial.

Spotify reportedly called all employees affected by this last Friday (Jan. 7), saying that they’d receive two months’ severance and their last day would be Jan. 21.

Some employees were reassigned, while others were laid off and directed instead to the company job board.

Julie McNamara, head of U.S. studios and video with Spotify, said in a note that the shutdown of the studio would help out with making it so the company could “move faster and make more significant progress and facilitate more effective collaboration across our organization.”

Studio 4, occasionally called Spotify Studios, was the first podcasting studio Spotify made, which consisted of every employee who worked on the podcasting before the company began making major network acquisitions.

While there were other employees hired, a former employee told The Verge that the original group “helped prove” the business model for podcasting, using shows like “Amy Schumer Presents: 3 Girls 1 Keith.”

The team eventually completed Spotify’s in-house studio offerings, including the three acquired networks Parcast, Gimlet and The Ringer.

Studio 4 has a literal name as it was the fourth studio at Spotify, and the report notes that the name is “insulting” to Spotify employees, as it doesn’t have a brand identity or mission statement. The employee said the company was a “junk drawer” for projects not a part of the other networks.

PYMNTS writes that Spotify has also recently pulled content from numerous comedians, including several wildly popular ones like John Mulaney, Kevin Hart and Jim Gaffigan. Along with rights admin company Spoken Giants, the comedians are trying to get royalty payments for writing the material as it’s played on the radio — not just performing it, as it currently is.

Read more: Spotify Pulls Comedians’ Content as Royalty Dispute Heats Up