Warner Music to Eliminate Around 270 in Latest Layoff News

Warner Music Group is the latest company to announce a round of layoffs, sharing on Wednesday that it will be eliminating around 270 positions, which equates to about 4% of the company’s global workforce. CEO Robert Kyncl delivered the news in a staff memo, writing “that to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of us, we need to make some hard choices in order to evolve.”

Why it matters: According to Warner Music's annual report, it employed around 6,200 workers as of September. Kyncl, who began his post at WMG on January 1 and formerly worked as YouTube's chief business officer, told staff that as WMG reduces its workforce, it will also be “reallocating resources towards new skills for artist and songwriter development and new tech initiatives” and “reducing discretionary spending and open positions to provide us with additional flexibility for our future.”

Tech talk: Technology appears to be a major part of Kyncl’s strategy for WMG going forward, as he wrote that “WMG is positioning itself for this new phase of growth at the intersection of creativity and technology," which seems like code for figuring out a way to best handle the rise of streaming services and their impact on the music business. In February, he appointed Ariel Bardin to the newly-created post of President of Technology to oversee the company’s technology and data teams.