I think that's a good take, it's easy to look in hindsight and say that they made wrong choices but we wouldn't even be having the conversation had they not been at least somewhat successful.
The question becomes then: 9,500 employee's and none among them know how (or wanted) to regain enough costs to save 17% of the company from losing their job just before Christmas?
Certain features (spotify wrapped for example) would definitely be a lot harder with more traditional hosting. But the bulk of Spotify's workload are not significantly hampered by moving slower on infrastructure and recuperating significant costs.
It's just very easy to keep piling infra costs on top of infra costs and not thinking about it, especially if it feels disconnected from company financials for most developers and they do not see a line between spending and jobs.
Spotify was, in theory, a growing product oriented company which means everyone is focused on growing revenue. To focus on cost savings means enough to make up for the GCP bills means you focus less on revenue and that means less growth. Saving money and losing 20% of your stock valuation due to slower growth is not a good trade off for those running such companies. That's not to say you can't have slow long term cost oriented initiatives but drastic efforts at the last minute (what you'd need to save those 17% of jobs this year) aren't that.
The question becomes then: 9,500 employee's and none among them know how (or wanted) to regain enough costs to save 17% of the company from losing their job just before Christmas?
Certain features (spotify wrapped for example) would definitely be a lot harder with more traditional hosting. But the bulk of Spotify's workload are not significantly hampered by moving slower on infrastructure and recuperating significant costs.
It's just very easy to keep piling infra costs on top of infra costs and not thinking about it, especially if it feels disconnected from company financials for most developers and they do not see a line between spending and jobs.