Spotify, the audio streaming platform, stated on Tuesday that it could not renew its contracts for 2 critically acclaimed podcasts, “Heavyweight” and “Stolen,” the most recent signal of the corporate curbing its podcasting ambitions because it struggles to develop into persistently worthwhile.
The reveals, that are produced by Gimlet Media, the podcast studio Spotify acquired in 2019, will conclude their seasons after which have the choice to buy their reveals elsewhere.
“We’re extraordinarily pleased with the groups who’ve supported these gifted storytellers throughout every of the unbelievable episodes of ‘Heavyweight’ and ‘Stolen,’” a Spotify spokeswoman stated, including that the corporate will “work with the present creators to make sure a clean transition for wherever these collection go subsequent.”
“Heavyweight” was hosted by Jonathan Goldstein and for seven seasons delved into the tales that form folks’s lives, searching for to assist them create higher endings. The present’s creators stated on social media, “We’re so pleased with every part we’ve made, and we’re hoping the present finds a brand new house sooner or later.”
“Stolen,” which acquired the Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting this yr, was created by Connie Walker, a journalist who investigated her late father’s life and his expertise and that of a whole bunch of different Indigenous youngsters in Canada’s residential college system.
The choice got here a day after Spotify introduced that it could lower almost a fifth of its work drive, its third spherical of layoffs up to now this yr, because it seeks constant profitability. The layoffs and curbing of podcast content material come because the know-how trade reckons with the top of a decade of rock-bottom rates of interest that propelled its progress.
Media firms have additionally suffered from a shortfall of promoting income, partly fueled by leaner promoting budgets and financial anxieties a few doable recession that by no means fairly occurred.
These forces have led some giant know-how and media firms to keep up their investments in so-called “all the time on” reveals that publish each day or weekly, and scale back their investments in restricted run or seasonal collection, that are more durable to make worthwhile, stated Nick Quah, the author of HotPod, a well-liked publication about podcasts.
“All of that is occurring, this financial instability, however the reality of the matter is, there’s nonetheless tons of podcast audiences,” Mr. Quah stated. “There’s an existential method wherein we’re speaking in regards to the podcast trade at this level, however audiences have continued to develop.”
A 2023 report from Edison analysis about podcast shoppers discovered that podcasts have extra mainstream listeners than ever who’re receptive to podcast adverts.
About 64 p.c of the U.S. inhabitants older than 12 years previous have listened to a podcast, and roughly 120 million folks in the identical demographic had not too long ago listened to a podcast, the report discovered.
Spotify, like different tech firms, was principally pushed in the course of the pandemic by the pursuit of potential progress, Mr. Quah stated.
The corporate paid $230 million for Gimlet Media in 2019 and round $200 million extra for The Ringer, Invoice Simmons’s sports activities media firm, in 2020. Later that yr, as shoppers spent much more time listening to podcasts in the course of the pandemic, Amazon purchased the favored podcast studio Wondery for $300 million, whereas SiriusXM paid $325 million for the platform and writer Stitcher.
However then the growth, or no less than the obvious potential to capitalize on that growth, pale, and Spotify was left with a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} value of product.
Eric Nuzum, a podcast strategist and co-founder of the unbiased studio Magnificent Noise, stated that “it’s important to separate Spotify away from the remainder of the podcast trade” as a result of the corporate has a unique enterprise mannequin with two primary income streams: subscriptions and promoting. And for years, the corporate was attempting to determine which one podcasting was imagined to serve, Mr. Nuzum added.
Spotify made these huge investments and have become “the 800-pound gorilla,” Mr. Nuzum stated.
It shortly grew to become clear that whereas a lot of the tech trade likes to “fail quick” and “transfer shortly,” that doesn’t work with journalism that may take months or years to create, and must construct an viewers or model, Mr. Nuzum stated.
Spotify’s previous choice to maintain some podcasts unique on the platform — somewhat than overtly out there on the web and normal podcasting apps — additionally killed a lot of the potential for reaching and rising audiences, Mr. Nuzum stated.
Now, Spotify seems to be honing in on a method that they consider will make a podcast profitable: bringing in celebrities with built-in fan bases, resembling Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama, Meghan Markle and Joe Rogan, whose deal was stated to be value greater than $200 million.
“The issue is you pay all the cash to amass the expertise and put no funding into making the product good,” Mr. Nuzum stated. “And I believe that they obtained burned by that point and time and time once more.”
Adam Satariano contributed reporting.
