ALT As of today, Gimlet and Parcast no longer exist. Spotify informed us this morning that we have been absorbed into Spotify Studios. Spotify also laid off 200 people today, including many workers unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East. This comes on top of sizable layoffs last year. We’re heartbroken - again - for our coworkers who have lost their jobs. And we’re frustrated by the mismanagement that led us here. When Spotify purchased Gimlet and Parcast for nearly $300 million, they acquired an incredible group of talented people with specific and marketable skills. Then, they wasted that opportunity: canceling shows with dedicated audiences, leaving half-finished projects to die on the vine, and giving teams little direction as to what they actually wanted to see produced. Spotify also made many of our shows exclusive to the platform, limiting the amount of revenue our studios could bring in. This has been tacitly acknowledged by Spotify, as leadership have since reversed

ALT Gimlet was a pioneer in the podcast industry, producing ambitious, genre-defining shows, some of which became household names – shows like: Start Up, Reply All, The Habitat, Sandra, Motherhacker, Homecoming, Crime Show, Resistance, Conviction, Not Past it, and so many others. These were shows that turned people into podcast listeners. Some formerly Gimlet shows will continue production. But all will be affected by today’s loss. Spotify acquired Gimlet because it saw something special in the studio. But instead of building on that legacy, the company undermined it, and four years later Gimlet is no more. Likewise, Parcast has produced numerous popular shows with dedicated audiences, including Serial Killers, Conspiracy Theories, and Supernatural with Ashley Flowers. Their always-on weekly format helped set standards in the industry for good and for ill. Our unit members and non-unionized colleagues regularly put in late nights, weekends, and holidays to meet grueling deadlines.