Instagram Director of Music Partnerships Included in Meta Layoffs

Instagram’s director of music partnerships, Perry Bashkoff, was one of the about 6,000 Meta employees whose roles were eliminated by Meta leadership on Wednesday (May 24). “Yes, I was one of them,” Bashkoff confirmed on Thursday in a LinkedIn post.

As Bashkoff noted, he was “part of the team that brought music to the Meta platforms.” He started at Instagram in this role in late 2019, and before that held a position as head of music label partnerships at Facebook. He previously spent a 10-year period working his way up the ladder at Warner Music Group, eventually becoming the label’s svp of global content and revenue development.

“From the early days of converting the naysayers, to having the opportunity to work with artists/teams directly ensuring they were using music to the max — watching songs break, artists hit follower milestones and come up with new/unique ways to use the tools we provide has been so motivating. Thank you to everyone,” he wrote.

This is Meta’s third round of recent layoffs, and one that was anticipated by the staff. In a Facebook post on March 14, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that rounds of layoffs would arrive in the coming months, including one in March that would affect technology departments, and one in late May that would impact “business groups.” Eventually, Zuckerberg promised 10,000 jobs would be cut and 5,000 jobs they originally were seeking to fill would be eliminated.

The cuts were part of what Zuckerberg called his “year of efficiency” and noted that the layoffs were part of the larger goal to “to make us a better technology company” and “to improve our financial performance in a difficult environment so we can execute our long term vision.”

Meta has not replied to Billboard’s request for comment.