Spotify will cut nearly one-fifth of its workforce, its third round of layoffs this year, as it struggles to become consistently profitable after spending aggressively to expand beyond music streaming into areas such as podcasting.

Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek wrote in a note to employees posted on the company’s website that the platform now needed to “right-size” to account for a “very different environment”. Spotify, which is based in Stockholm, will let go of about 1500 people, or 17 per cent of its staff.