Spotify announces ambitious new plans to nurture its commitment to the podcast industryNurPhoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Spotify is not just music anymore.
The company
It has been betting big on the
podcast
for several years
, an industry that grows more and more and that only in the United States has 104 million monthly listeners, according to the latest report by
Edison Infinite Dial
.
This year will not be the exception.
Spotify has revealed an ambitious plan to promote and revolutionize the podcasts of its platform with improvements in audio quality, audiovisual implementations through strategic alliances, new programs with characters of the stature of Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama, Joe Rogan or Kim Kardashian and a mega expansion to African, Asian and Latin American markets.
The company revealed during its
Stream On
showcase event
that things are serious.
Spotify will work with WordPress - a popular content management and page creation system - to translate the written content of the blogs that want it directly into podcasts through its authoring platform,
Anchor
.
This will allow users to convert their written web posts into audio content and market them as podcasts within Spotify.
Additionally, in the coming months, Anchor will allow creators to add videos to their audios, a feature that is currently only available to music artists, and will also launch interactivity tools between creators and their audiences, such as polls and Q&A functions for that users can interact and provide feedback to podcast broadcasters.
One of the biggest news is the expansion to other continents and countries.
"We are embarking on a radical expansion that will introduce the world's most popular audio streaming subscription service available to more than 1 billion people in more than 80 new markets around the world, with 36 languages added to our platform." the company has explained in a statement about
Stream On
.
Among the new markets there are African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean countries, such as: Angola, Belize, Cameroon, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, among others.
“By reaching more countries in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America, we are giving millions of new creators the opportunity to create, discover and build a career in audio creation, and we are providing the opportunity to billions of new fans to hear it ”.
Safe bet?
Is the podcast a trend with an expiration date?
Not necessarily.
It's no secret that Spotify is looking to make podcasts the most important focus of its application going forward.
And is not for less.
The company has tripled the number of
podcasts
on its platform and its offering has increased from 700,000 podcasts in 2019 to 2.2 million today.
A survey published earlier this month by data and statistics site
Statista
reveals that Spotify was the number one podcast provider in 2020, with a 31% market share, ahead of Apple Podcasts (22%), Pandora. (13%) and iHeartRadio (11%), its main competitors.
In addition, the hours of podcast consumption have doubled since 2019, according to
Axios
.
Thus, the podcast phenomenon has reached all parts of the globe.
In the United States, podcasts have grown steadily in recent years.
55% of Americans listened to at least one in 2020, up from 51% in 2019, and the trend is expected to skyrocket in the coming years.
The 2019 Reuters Institute Digital News Report revealed that South Korea, Spain, Ireland and Sweden top the list of countries with the most podcast users, followed by the United States, Italy, Canada and Australia.
In Europe, the value of podcast ad spend is expected to reach € 207 million in 2023. This would be a huge increase compared to 2019 ad spend of € 38.6 million.
With data and technology on its side, Spotify seems like a safe bet for an industry that already dominates and leads.
For now.
The Obama / Springsteen boom
Spotify has bet on celebrities in its podcasts.
For this reason, listeners can listen to one of his star programs that has been released a few days ago on his platform.
This is “Renegades: Born in the USA”, a podcast that unites former US President Barack Obama and musical star Bruce Springsteen and transmits their personal and intimate conversations.
"President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen first met in 2008. Although the two have very different backgrounds and careers, they formed a deep friendship," Spotify says in a statement.
The eight-episode series was announced during Spotify's “Stream On” event and is the second podcast to be released through Spotify's partnership with Obama and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground.
Throughout the season, Obama and Springsteen will explore issues of race, parenthood, marriage, and the future of America.
The first two episodes are exclusively available to the hundreds of millions of free Spotify users and partners around the world now.
You can follow EL PAÍS TECNOLOGÍA RETINA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or subscribe here to our Newsletter.
