Spotify launches immense build-out of podcast playlists and guidance

Spotify’s headline for today is the launch of podcast playlists. By itself, that’s not a tectonic announcement, since the streaming platform has already introduced limited podcast playlisting both service-produced and user-created.

But today we see a muscular rollout of podcast curation which clearly aspires to apply the influence and power of Spotify’s music playlists. On the music side, those playlists generate immense amounts of listening and groups of followers, and they deliver star success for the artists and labels which position on them.

The new stuff is located in the Browse section of the Android app, but rather inconspicuously represented by a single PODCASTS tile which is a gateway to dozens of playlists based on various criteria.

Within lies a double layer of curated content. The top layer in our app has “Featured podcast playlists,” another category of “Podcasts that’ll make you smarter,” and then a long list of categories. They include Charts (really just one chart, Spotify’s top 200 shows), Playlists (another bucket of playlists under various categories) News, Stories, True Crime (would be shocking if not there), Celebrities, and much more.

Nobody should underestimate what Spotify is doing. The company has impressively leaped into podcasting, having already revised the basic app structure to make podcasting sit side-by-side with music. Now the global juggernaut appears ready to pour its influence into non-music audio, with a product build-out reaching consumers in the U.S., Germany, Sweden, the U.K., Mexico, and Brazil.

The company is explicit in carrying over its music playlist strategy: “For years, Spotify’s flagship music playlists like RapCaviar, Hot Country, and ¡Viva Latino! have helped listeners discover their new favorite artists and can’t miss music. Now, we’re bringing the same expertise that we put into our curated music playlists to podcasts.”

This robust catalog of playlists — while it’s somewhat surprising that Spotify doesn’t surface it more obviously within the app — is positioned to increase listening, and heat up the Spotify/Apple rivalry for global distribution.

.

 

Brad Hill