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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Layoffs Hit Rdio

The music streaming business can be tough, with market leaders like Spotify growing like weeds but still loss-making. Wednesday, some bad news from competitor Rdio, the music streaming service startup from Skype co-founder Janus Friis. The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is laying people off.

“Rdio confirmed making across-the-board workforce reductions today to improve its cost structure and ensure a scalable business model for the long-term,” a spokesperson said today.

The company did not offer any further specifics on the layoffs. One person who first alerted us to them alleges that they affect 35 people. Techcrunch reports they’ve have had other tips that say this works out to between one-fifth and one-third of the workforce, with significant cuts in engineering.

Indeed, at least two people affected by the layoffs are both engineers that focus on mobile and web apps.

But, according to TechCrunch,  it’s notable that the company has not released any user numbers in a while. As a point of comparison, earlier this month Deezer reported passing the 5 million mark for paying users — and that’s without any entry into the U.S. market. Spotify last reported 6 million paying users in March 2013.

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