Instagram’s Director of Music partnerships, Perry Bashkoff, is exiting the platform as part of Facebook parent company Meta’s latest round of job cuts.
Bashkoff joined Meta’s music licensing team in January 2018 as Head of Music Label Partnerships at Facebook. Prior to this, he held the position of SVP of Global Content & Revenue Development at Warner Music Group in New York.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Bashkoff confirmed that he was one of those affected by Meta’s layoffs.
Confirming the news on LinkedIn, Bashkoff acknowledged being affected by Meta’s layoffs, saying, “Yes, I was one of them.”
“I’ve been one of the lucky ones who has had a 25+ year career run without pause. The last 5 spent at Instagram/Meta bringing music to the masses, building tools, breaking artists, building relationships, and having some of the most fun I’ve ever had doing “work.” While this is not the next update I was expecting or wanting to send, a short pause right now sounds…interesting…”
Bashkoff’s exit came about a month after Instagram started testing a feature that allows users to add songs to photo carousels on their posts.
Aside from Bashkoff, Meta has also downsized its business and operations teams as part of its final round of layoffs.
This move aligns with Meta’s previously announced plan to eliminate 10,000 jobs throughout the year, as outlined by Meta’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in March during what he described as the company’s “Year of Efficiency.”
“We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May. In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes,” Zuckerberg said at the time.
“Our timelines for international teams will also look different, and local leaders will follow up with more details. Overall, we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired.”
The change comes as Meta shifts its focus to the metaverse, with plans to launch new products “to create richer experiences.”
Zuckerberg had said that the focus on metaverse is “central to defining the future of social connection.”
“The last 5 spent at Instagram/Meta bringing music to the masses, building tools, breaking artists, building relationships, and having some of the most fun I’ve ever had doing ‘work.'”
Perry Bashkoff
Most recently, The Washington Post reported that Zuckerberg told employees during a company-wide meeting that he hopes Meta will have more stability but less bureaucracy in the future.
“Going through restructuring and layoffs and changes like this is obviously a very difficult thing… So it’s not like we’re going to end up in exactly the place that we were before because that wasn’t my goal. I wanted to get to a scrappier place,” Zuckerberg reportedly said.
Meta is among the tech giants that are cutting their headcount to better navigate the current macroeconomic challenges.
Last week, SoundCloud said in an internal memo, obtained by MBW, that it is reducing its current global staff headcount by 8%, or roughly 40 people. The majority of layoffs will take place in the US.
