Will Spotify Ruin Podcasting?

Jim

Interesting article talking about Spotify's corrosive effect on podcast distribution and monetization. Probably no one cares, but as an indie podcaster, this kind of stuff scares me.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/will-spotify-ruin-podcasting

CretanBull

Diversify now.  Every podcast that you do should be available on iTunes etc but each episode should also be on YouTube and Twitch too.

jhpark

Huh. I like Podcast Addict. I have no  interest in using Spotify for my podcast. Unfortunately, I'm an outlier with tech stuff, so I bet my opinion doesn't mean much.

asmallcat

I've heard that Spotify's UI for podcasts is awful, although I've never used it. I expect that shows that go exclusive to spotify are gonna see their numbers absolutely tank, and they're gonna have a hard time trying to get more people to go exclusive. At that point, why would people use Spotify when you can't download the episodes unless you are a premium member? 

Obviously this is an outside perspective, but I don't see Spotify killing rss podcasts anytime soon. Especially since every app, afaik, let's you stream the podcast anyway, and it's not like you wanna shuffle podcasts or have to pay for them normally, so I don't see the advantage that Spotify gives you in podcasts like it does for music. 

Cecily

That was a great read, with really eerie implications for the future, because it is definitely happening.

Doctor_Nick

The article doesn't mention that this is one of Spotify's only plays to avoid being eaten alive by Apple.  There's very little that differentiates Spotify from Apple Music, Apple doesn't need to make any money from music but Spotify does and Apple distributes Apple Music bundled in to all their wealthy hardware customers.  One good way to drive those customers to use Spotify is exclusive content.  

asmallcat

Doctor_Nick said:

The article doesn't mention that this is one of Spotify's only plays to avoid being eaten alive by Apple.  There's very little that differentiates Spotify from Apple Music, Apple doesn't need to make any money from music but Spotify does and Apple distributes Apple Music bundled in to all their wealthy hardware customers.  One good way to drive those customers to use Spotify is exclusive content.  

Well, a big advantage of Spotify over Apple Music is that 75% of the market uses android phones, and sure you can get apple music for android, but why would you? Further, apple music has an 18% market share for streaming music, and a 23% share for the phone market, which means not even all iPhone users are using apple music. Plus free apple music memberships do have ads, right? So what's the advantage over spotify? 

I guess apple can throw essentially unlimited money at the problem to try and corner the market, but they've shown in the past they are willing to bail. And since they've failed to take over TV streaming in any real capacity, I doubt they will suddenly succeed in music. Hell, if anything they've lost ground since the peak days of iTunes. 

Murderbear

I've been an Apple Music user since it was Beats. I like it a lot. As far as I can tell, the only thing Spotify has on Apple Music is those fancy scmancy year end wrap ups (which I am legit jealous of) and the fact that you can listen to podcasts and music all in one app.

mft9186

Spotify paying 250 million for the ringer ! How do we get baldmove to get in on some of that sweet Spotify podcast money ? 

Hatorian

Spotify bought Bill Simmons Ringer. He already had a few podcast under luminary which is a paid service with Spotify. I really hope all his other content doesn’t go behind the pay wall now 

Garthgou81

I heard about Last Podcast on the Left moving entirely to Spotify this upcoming Friday. It threw me for a loop. 

asmallcat

Garthgou81 said:

I heard about Last Podcast on the Left moving entirely to Spotify this upcoming Friday. It threw me for a loop. 

Yeah I am a listener and am fairly annoyed. I like the show, and am glad they got their money, but I don't know if I wanna deal with installing a new app and making a new account and all that nonsense for one show.

Doctor_Nick

asmallcat said:

Doctor_Nick said:

The article doesn't mention that this is one of Spotify's only plays to avoid being eaten alive by Apple.  There's very little that differentiates Spotify from Apple Music, Apple doesn't need to make any money from music but Spotify does and Apple distributes Apple Music bundled in to all their wealthy hardware customers.  One good way to drive those customers to use Spotify is exclusive content.  

Well, a big advantage of Spotify over Apple Music is that 75% of the market uses android phones, and sure you can get apple music for android, but why would you? Further, apple music has an 18% market share for streaming music, and a 23% share for the phone market, which means not even all iPhone users are using apple music. Plus free apple music memberships do have ads, right? So what's the advantage over spotify? 

I guess apple can throw essentially unlimited money at the problem to try and corner the market, but they've shown in the past they are willing to bail. And since they've failed to take over TV streaming in any real capacity, I doubt they will suddenly succeed in music. Hell, if anything they've lost ground since the peak days of iTunes. 

The advantage that Apple has is that its users spend much more money on software and services than Android users do, and I will bet that Apple Music will be wrapped into a monthly Apple services package that will be showing up. 

Hatorian

Most likely. They will do a bundle of appletv and music. And may even include one or two rental options 

Noel

Hatorian said:

Spotify bought Bill Simmons Ringer. He already had a few podcast under luminary which is a paid service with Spotify. I really hope all his other content doesn’t go behind the pay wall now 

I would pay for the Simmons pod if they take away ads. Or just do a single one on the top. And no intro either, he’s takes a good 3 min before Pearl Jam starts paying.

MrX

Hatorian said:

Spotify bought Bill Simmons Ringer. He already had a few podcast under luminary which is a paid service with Spotify. I really hope all his other content doesn’t go behind the pay wall now 

Luminary is separate from Spotify - not sure what will happen to the Ringer's podcasts that are exclusive to Luminary. My guess is they are under a contract and will remain for the time being, but I doubt Spotify will opt to put more podcasts on Lumniary.

Hatorian

Noel said:

Hatorian said:

Spotify bought Bill Simmons Ringer. He already had a few podcast under luminary which is a paid service with Spotify. I really hope all his other content doesn’t go behind the pay wall now 

I would pay for the Simmons pod if they take away ads. Or just do a single one on the top. And no intro either, he’s takes a good 3 min before Pearl Jam starts paying.

Yea I just skip until I hear pearl jam

Doctor_Nick

You can set intro skip times in some apps like Pocketcasts. . 

fidoz

Is there a podcast app that will pull podcast from the various platforms?

Teresa from Concord

I use Spotify a lot, but not for podcasts. Really not user friendly. If they fixed the UI I'd be ok with having an all in one app.

JoshTheBlack

Copy/Pasted from a thread I commented on on /r/LPOTL:  

My issue with it is one of choice and convenience. I don't use Spotify for anything. If I have to switch to Spotify for one or two podcasts, I'll do it for a few weeks, but then I'll fall off of it and 6 months will go by. Then I'll think, "I wonder what LPOTL has been up to, find out I've missed 50+ episodes and just say forget it.

I'm subscribed to over 100 podcasts, with all the listened episodes clearly marked in Pocket Casts, synced to my pocket casts account. I have a carefully maintained auto playlist of the shows I'm currently listening to. I have put a lot of time and energy into making it the best that I can, despite some features that PC lacks.

Spotify doesn't even have an OPML import/export feature, so if I want to use one platform and abandon all the work I've put into Pocket Casts, I have to manually add each and every podcast into Spotify. If I later choose to leave Spotify, I have to do it again. Spotify doesn't allow me to download an episode to take on an unsupported device. Podcasts are generally considered to be an open platform. Episodes are DRM free mp3 files. If you want to download an episode and throw it on your circa 2005 iPod, you can. With Spotify, nope!

Look, I understand it was a business decision. Spotify as a technology is years behind the top apps in the podcast arena. I won't begrudge LPOTL for making the business decision they made. I also don't like it. I think Spotify is applying a walled garden approach to a medium that has been borderless for 20+ years. Personally, I think that's destined for failure, and any failure of Spotify translates into a failure to networks owned by Spotify. Like when clearchannel bought up and ruined all of the diversity of American radio and turned it into a homogenized mess.

Ultimately, it's an inconvenience that I fear will keep me, and probably a significant amount of others, from being consistent listeners, and I've been a consistent listeners for years.

Look, it's not hard to download Spotify and sign up for an account.  It seriously takes < 1min to signup.  But the UI is bad and so is the experience.  Spotify is designed as a music app, and all the music features are up front.  Podcasts are added as an afterthought and take multiple extra navigational clicks just to get to them.  

With the FREE spotify account, you can download podcast episodes.  However, they download into your local spotify app database, and appear to be DRM'd.  They aren't MP3s, as best as I can discern.  Sure, you can listen offline in spotify, as long as you go online once every 30 days.  You just can't listen anywhere else, which is bad.  

Kilberandy

Hey there, fellow forum peeps! I'm new here and stumbled upon this interesting thread about Spotify and podcasting. As an indie podcaster, I understand the concerns raised about Spotify's impact on distribution and monetization.But it's worth noting that Spotify has opened up new opportunities for indie artists and podcasters to reach wider audiences. In fact, you can now create an artist profile on Spotify and promote your music/podcast there. I found this article on https://songlifty.com/spotify-artist-profile/ that explains how to set up an artist profile on Spotify, in case you are interested.As for the UI and user experience on Spotify's podcast platform, it's not the most intuitive. But I think it's important to keep an open mind and explore new ways to reach audiences.