Spotify ($SPOT) crushed earnings, grew tremendously, made $2 billion in revenue, got some new podcasts from buying The Ringer, and had an all-out celebration in terms of new users this quarter. This was all thanks to people staying indoors, self-quarantining and listening to music nonstop, the company confirmed in a post to its news blog.

The music streaming pioneer is making all the headlines with its impressive active users count, which is reportedly now over 286 million monthly split between 130 million premium subscribers and 163 million ad-supported users. But lost in the shuffle of great news and endless figures about its growth and its future is that Spotify is dramatically scaling back its hiring to keep its budget low for the foreseeable future.

Job listings are down 32% since March 21st, which is right around the time the pandemic forced companies and states everywhere to let employees work from home. This is a very common trend we're seeing from almost every business, cutting whatever job openings and postings there were online to stop hiring.

Q1 saw Spotify grow by 450+ employees or so, but with the recent hiring slowdown, it's safe to expect that upwards trajectory to level off soon. 

People began talking about Spotify on Facebook more and more from late March to early April, and engagement is up on all social media platforms.

Spotify had over 12 million reviews on the Apple App Store, maintaining a 5/5 average rating. But clearly there was a scrub of those reviews, so the numbers dipped, but still, people clearly love the Spotify app and continue to give it near perfect scores, even as millions of more users use the service for the first time during self-quarantine. On the Google Play Store, the average rating went up to 4.6/5, with over 18 million reviews.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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