Spotify has invested millions into developing the podcast side of its platform over the last few years. Now, you can enjoy podcast from famous faces and big brands right alongside your music… but at what expense?
Let’s take a look at all the ways Spotify has invested into podcasts. You can judge for yourself whether you believe Spotify is changing its focus to become a podcast platform.
Spotify Acquires Big Name Podcasts and Networks
Since 2018, Spotify hinted that it had plans to invest heavily into becoming a major player in the podcast game. Over the next few years it made several moves towards that goal, as it acquired Anchor, Gimlet Media, Parcast, and Ringer.
These companies helped Spotify gain access to many podcasts channels and helped propel it to become one of the biggest podcast platforms in the world.
It also began to pay millions for the exclusive rights to shows like The Joe Rogan Podcast, as well as big names like Michelle Obama and Kim Kardashian. Spotify hoped these well-known celebrities would bring people to its platform, and then hopefully upgrade to being paid subscribers.
The considerable rise in podcasts listeners over the last few years has caused Spotify, as well as Amazon and other platforms, to invest heavily. The change hasn’t yet led to big profits like Spotify had hoped, but it’s still working out how to properly monetize podcasts.
With the purchase of Megaphone, an advertising marketplace for podcasts, Spotify can now bridge the gap between content publishers and advertisers. Before, Spotify only offered its streaming ad insertion tool for original and exclusive Spotify podcasts.
Now that Spotify has acquired Megaphone, it’s able to offer these dynamic ads to any podcasters, new or old. Megaphone allows advertisers to scale their efforts by gathering more user data like age and device used.
Spotify Invests In Every Aspect of Podcasts
At this point, it’s too early to tell what’s going to be successful for Spotify. The podcast industry is still in its relative infancy; there’s no guaranteed way to bring in listeners or generate revenue.
One thing is certain: Spotify won’t leave any stone unturned. It acquired Anchor, a company that helps podcasters easily create their own content. Anchor lets creators use their phones to upload shows, distribute their shows to multiple platforms, and easily gain access to sponsors.
Traditionally, Spotify had been a platform strictly for uploading content, but with this new addition, it has entered the world of content creation. This even further proves that Spotify is betting on new and upcoming creators, as well as established ones.
Spotify Changes Its App Design to Promote Podcasts
For years, Spotify has been investing more of its resources into growing the podcast side of its platform, rather than solely focussing on music. Even before COVID-19, it was clear that podcasts were growing, but the pandemic accelerated that growth exponentially.
Spotify has reacted accordingly and redesigned its app to put podcasts front and center. On the homepage, right near the top, is a list of featured podcasts. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never listened to a podcast on Spotify before—it will still show you recommendations.
In the search section of Spotify, you will see your top music genres first, but right underneath are podcasts. There are also several podcast categories mixed into the music categories and no distinction to tell which is which.
These changes aren’t taking over the entire platform quite yet, but they are starting to take away app real estate from what the Spotify app has been well known for: music. If you only use Spotify for music, it’s frustrating that you can’t escape podcasts.
It’s unclear at this time what plans Spotify has to distinguish these two mediums from each other, or whether it plans on changing its app to make it more friendly for audiophiles and podcast listeners to exist in harmony.
What Does the Future Hold for Spotify?
Spotify will always be a music app at heart, but its latest actions and investments show that it has bigger plans for its future. Acquiring more companies in the podcast space and switching up the app design are signs changes will keep coming. Spotify is trying to integrate podcasts seamlessly, but it’s clear the more changes for podcasts it makes, the more it takes away from music.
If you are a fan of podcasts, you should check out Spotify’s podcast charts, which you can use to discover new things to listen to.