Spotify has gone big on podcasts since early this year. In February they acquired Anchor and Gimlet media for around $230 million. Gimlet Media is a podcast network and producer which hosts shows like StartUp, Homecoming, Mogul, The Pitch, Reply All, The Cut, Science VS while Anchor is a DIY podcasting startup. Anchor’s platform has a set of tools that make it super easy for anyone(beginner and Pro) to create and monetize their own podcasts and for free. The streaming giant has even signed exclusive podcast deal with Higher Ground Productions, Barack and Michelle Obama’s media company have signed an exclusive multiyear deal to produce podcasts for Spotify.
Spotify’s efforts on podcasts have also begun to pay off. Spotify’s podcast audience has doubled since the year began and has grown by over 50 per cent since the last quarter. The company has 108 million paying subscribers(Apple Music has 60 million paying users) as it added 8 million paying users in three months with a target of 110 million users. Spotify now has 232 million monthly active users.
With the launch of Your Daily Podcast, Spotify wants to use its algorithms that power its curated playlists such as Discover Weekly and Daily Mix to offer personalized podcast playlists.
Your Daily Podcast will be anchored in what you’re familiar with
This new playlist will be built off users listening history and behaviour like recent streams and follows to provide them with a curated feed and might include:
- a popular podcast in a similar genre
- A popular podcast episode in a show you listened to
- a podcast featuring the same host or notable personality
- a podcast about a similar topic
- a podcast that has similar attributes such as length or format
Your Daily Podcast will be drawn from the over 500,000 podcast titles Spotify has and will be immediately available to both free(248 million monthly active users) and premium users(113 million paid subscribers) in select countries.
Spotify didn’t clarify if they’ll be featuring any specific podcasts at launch. To avoid spoilers, Spotify will recommend a trailer or pilot episode first for story-driven podcasts.
Your Daily Podcast playlist will only appear if users have listened to at least four podcasts in the past three months and this feature will be available in the “Your Top Podcasts” shelf in your Home tab or the “Made for You” tab in the Spotify app.
It gets complicated
“For podcasts, it gets a bit more complex than music. There’s a multitude of topics and hosts, and the format is hugely variable. Whereas most songs are about 3 minutes in length, podcasts can vary from a minute to two hours in length,” Emily Rawitsch, director of product design in Spotify’s personalization group told Quartz.
No Ads
Spotify says that it won’t run additional ads on top of podcasts’ own sponsorships for now.
Win-Win for podcast listeners and hosts
Your Daily Podcast will offer listeners new shows or episodes to listen to while at the same time podcasts get recommended to new audiences and might help less mainstream podcast shows get visibility.
Check it out here.
Your Daily Podcast now joins Yor Daily Drive which combined music and podcasts that now allows listeners to create their own playlists using podcasts.
