Spotify has announced plans to axe roughly 1,500 jobs.

In a note to employees, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said it would be cutting 17 per cent of roles across its workforce.

He said that many employees would find the the number of cuts "surprisingly large" given the company's recent positive earnings report and strong performance.

Spotify originally debated making smaller cuts across 2024 and 2025 but because of a gap between its financial goals and operational costs it decided that "substantial action to rightsize [its] costs" was the best option.

The move comes after Spotify reportedly axed around 600 jobs earlier this year.

The chief exec said that while its achievements over the past two years have been "impressive", a lot of this positive output has been linked to having more resources, adding that the company has been more productive but "less efficient".

"While we have done some work to mitigate this challenge and become more efficient in 2023, we still have a ways to go before we are both productive and efficient," he continued. "Today, we still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact.

"More people need to be focused on delivering for our key stakeholders – creators and consumers. In two words, we have to become relentlessly resourceful."

Spotify is the latest in a long list of tech companies being forced to cut staff after many saw their workforces grow during the pandemic.

In May, BT announced it would be cutting up to 55,000 jobs by 2023 as part of a cost-saving strategy.

Reports at the time suggested that around a fifth of roles axed by the telecoms giant will be in customer services, with the jobs likely be replaced by technology such as AI.

During the same month, Vodafone’s share price dropped by almost four per cent after its new chief executive Margherita Della Valle announced plans to axe around 11,000 jobs over the next three years.

Meta and Microsoft have also cut thousands of jobs this year.

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