This is a photo of Aoki performing in Las Vegas, not at the Amazon event. | Photo by David Becker/Getty Images
Amazon may have just confirmed that it would be laying off employees, but it seems to still have room for a Steve Aoki concert. On Wednesday evening, the superstar DJ performed a live concert for what appeared to be a group of Amazon warehouse employees, and the whole thing was streamed on the AmazonVestLife Twitch channel.
We learned this was happening at all thanks to the New York Timesâ Karen Weise, who tweeted about the performance shortly before it wrapped up. But it seems the concert wasnât exactly a secret, as the âamazonvestlifeâ Instagram (which, like the Twitch channel, describes itself as the âofficial account for Amazon associatesâ) posted a story featuring Aoki to promote the show earlier on Wednesday. The DJ gave a shoutout to âAmazoniansâ and said the show would be streaming on Twitch.
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
Aoki took a photo onstage at the end of the show.
If this âhold a concert right after laying people offâ thing rings familiar to you, youâre not alone; WeWork reportedly hosted an in-office concert featuring Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC a few weeks after CEO Adam Neumann fired 7 percent of the staff.
Amazon didnât immediately reply to a request for comment.
The cuts announced Wednesday by Amazon SVP Dave Limp affected the companyâs devices and services organization, and spokesperson Kristy Schmidt characterized the layoffs to me earlier as a very small percentage of the team. But that division isnât the only one affected, as Vox reported that some employees in the companyâs HR division have received a buyout offer. The New York Times reported Monday that Amazon plans to lay off approximately 10,000 corporate and technology employees in total.