In a thick and newly released report called Culture Next 2021, Spotify delivers research results that focus on the Millennial and GenZ demos, and how their media consumption trends can appeal to advertisers. Podcasting represents one section, which seeks to promote the effectiveness of podcast advertising for marketers. Continue Reading
The Washington Post has hired Renita Jablonski as director of audio (title uncapitalized in the press release). Jablonski comes from Spotify, and is also ex-NPR. The move signals the importance of audio to WaPo, which displays neary 30 shows on its podcast page. Continue Reading
“You wanna know who we’re crawling into bed with this time? […] We are now officially in an exclusive relationship with Spotify.” –Alex Cooper’s in-character announcement of a buyout deal with Spotify. The high-rated show will be exclusive starting July 14. Continue Reading
Spotify CEO and Chairman Daniel Ek has received a letter from the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Congress. The letter questions the working and purpose of Spotify’s relatively new “Discovery Mode,” a promotional tool offered to recording artists and record labels which influences which songs get onto listener playlists in exchange for lower royalty rates when those placements are streamed — a potential payola issue. Click for an explanation of Discovery Mode and the complete letter. Continue Reading
In a UK-based consumer survey report based partly on podcasts and partly on digital audio generally, results indicate that marketing in both realms is beneficial to advertisers, and in many respects is superior to TV advertising. The research was conducted by MAGNA and funded by Spotify. Click through for details and the download link. Continue Reading
Spotify has long encouraged musical self-reflection in its subscribers with an end-of-year feature called Spotify Wrapped. Now comes Only You, a similar round-up of individual preferences and new playlists based on those preferences. It will be a continuing new product bundled into the Home panel. Continue Reading
Spotify is announcing today (independent of the IAB Podcast Upfront which runs this week) that Armchair Expert, the chatcast interview show hosted by actor Dax Shepard, is moving to the platform for exclusive distribution. At the same time there is a “first look” development deal which extends to Shepard’s Armchair Umbrella Network. Continue Reading
Spotify will rename its recent acquisition from Locker Room to Spotify Greenroom, expanding its social audio focus beyond sports to music creators and culture subjects. Also, a lot of vaccine playlists. Continue Reading
The last time Spotify meaningfully redesigned the Your Library panel in its mobile app was shortly about a year after the platform began offering podcasts. Today Spotify is announcing a redesigned Your Library mobile app experience to better organize and find content. Continue Reading
Spotify (SPOT) released its Q1 earnings this morning, showing strong year-over-year growth and mixed quarter-over-quarter results. Investors sent the stock skidding nearly 10% (at this writing). Click for finance details and graphs showing user distributions.
Continue Reading
Spotify released a trio of announcements this morning. One predominates: Paid podcast subscriptions within Spotify. Continue Reading
Spotify is potentially extending its global reach in podcast distribution in a collaboration with Facebook, which has about eight times as many users. We tested sharing Spotify podcasts on the Facebook news feed. It sort of worked. Continue Reading