8 ms·

Spotify's big bet on podcasts is failing, Citi says

24 points by tchalla 6y ago

chovybizzass 6y ago
nobody going to pay for podcasts. its brought back RSS so people can syndicate their podcasts. That's why there is no walled garden for podcasts. There are dozens if not hundreds of podcast apps out there.
- Swenrekcah 6y ago
  I actually don’t mind paying for some of the podcasts I listen to, but private RSS feed links work fine for that purpose so I agree, there is no need to make podcasting a walled garden.
  - chovybizzass 6y ago
    I will share the podcast. I don't usually contribute financially.
trianglem 6y ago
Shouldn’t have blown all that money on a borderline alt-right Joe Roegan.
- eloff 6y ago
  If you describe pot loving, socially liberal Joe Rogan as alt right, what term exactly do you use to describe tiki torch carrying white supremacists? Let's not get carried away here.
- zug_zug 6y ago
  I've listened to enough Joe Rogan to find him vaguely middle-right (overall, and somewhat inconsistent and hard to pin down). Deliberately mischaracterizing people as alt right (something he actually talks about) if anything backfires. It's an exaggeration and it reduces the credibility of criticizer. When it's systematically wrong (e.g. wrong in print) it thus goes on to undermine objectivity of the media that is so important in times like these.
- alacombe 6y ago
  Do you mean Bernie-bro Joe Rogan is "alt-right" ?
- tracerbulletx 6y ago
  Can we admit yet that our concepts of left and right, liberal and conservative in this country are horrible abstractions? Joe Rogan expresses dumb and not so dumb ideas which are scattered all over the place from what might be called left or right. He has weird pseudoscientific health opinions that are both right and leftish, aggressive ideas about masculinity he takes a lot of dumb conspiracy theorists at their word. These are enough reasons for me to not really like his takes, but he's had good interviews, he's had liberal economic ideas expressed too, I just don't think the left and right buckets are useful.
bleah1000 6y ago
I think they shot themselves in the foot over the Joe Rogan thing. I suspect that they could have increased subscriptions by a large amount, but there were PR disasters all over the place. I suspect that a number of people decided not to move because of how things were handled. Or at least the appearance that Spotify might ban or censor Rogan's podcast. Right when the biggest hype for this acquisition was happening, all of the PR was negative. I wonder if as things cool off and no other issues occur, Joe Rogan fans will slowly move over, but time will tell.
- happynacho 6y ago
  Exactly, I see no reason to use Spotify podcasts over a dedicated app/service I already use.
  - toper-centage 6y ago
    Specially where there are several FOSS apps.
waiseristy 6y ago
Why the hell would podcasts cause more users to purchase premium? It doesn't remove ads, it doesn't change the way you listen to podcasts on the app at all!
- listless 6y ago
  I assume the thinking goes something like this... "We know that x% of free accounts convert to premium. That means that if we can get more free accounts, we'll get more premium."
randycupertino 6y ago
I'll take a well done audiobook with a professional narrator any day and twice on Sunday over listening to a podcast. Too many poorly done podcasts out there saturating the market with such a low barrier to entry - anyone can spout an opinion on a mic. Hard pass.
- nicbou 6y ago
  On the other hand there is so much more variety to podcasts, and I like their somewhat bite-sized format. Sometimes I don't feel like thinking and just like to hear fun people shoot the bull. Other times I feel like hearing about a variety of topics. Podcasts are an amazing format in my opinion.
- waiseristy 6y ago
  The podcasts licensed by Spotify are usually very high quality. If your talking about the platform itself, there are plenty. Pleeeeeennnty of very bad audio books on Amazon too.
oxinabox 6y ago
Spotify is not a particularly nice tool to listen to podcasts in to begin with. AFAIK they haven't done anything to make podcasts different from music except section them off. Nothing in it makes it good for podcasts, I am not sure it even has an easy way to track which you have listen to and what is next? Also it's recommend podcast is hilariously insuitable. It's definately taken straight from its recommended music feature. It just recommends basically random things without context. Since a lot of podcasts are either: Serials, in which case it will happy suggest listening to epsiode 11 of a 22 epsisode story. Or current affairs, in which case it will happily suggest something from over 6 months ago.
- paul_f 6y ago
  This is so correct. Listening to podcasts on Spotify is an awful experience. They need a distinct podcast app IMO.
ChildOfChaos 6y ago
I don't understand how Spotify have paid so much for exclusive podcasts but hired a programer from Fiverr to do there UX.

24 points by tchalla 6y ago

nobody going to pay for podcasts. its brought back RSS so people can syndicate their podcasts. That's why there is no walled garden for podcasts. There are dozens if not hundreds of podcast apps out there.

Swenrekcah 6y ago
I actually don’t mind paying for some of the podcasts I listen to, but private RSS feed links work fine for that purpose so I agree, there is no need to make podcasting a walled garden.
- chovybizzass 6y ago
  I will share the podcast. I don't usually contribute financially.

trianglem 6y ago

Shouldn’t have blown all that money on a borderline alt-right Joe Roegan.

eloff 6y ago
If you describe pot loving, socially liberal Joe Rogan as alt right, what term exactly do you use to describe tiki torch carrying white supremacists? Let's not get carried away here.
zug_zug 6y ago
I've listened to enough Joe Rogan to find him vaguely middle-right (overall, and somewhat inconsistent and hard to pin down). Deliberately mischaracterizing people as alt right (something he actually talks about) if anything backfires. It's an exaggeration and it reduces the credibility of criticizer. When it's systematically wrong (e.g. wrong in print) it thus goes on to undermine objectivity of the media that is so important in times like these.
alacombe 6y ago
Do you mean Bernie-bro Joe Rogan is "alt-right" ?
tracerbulletx 6y ago
Can we admit yet that our concepts of left and right, liberal and conservative in this country are horrible abstractions? Joe Rogan expresses dumb and not so dumb ideas which are scattered all over the place from what might be called left or right. He has weird pseudoscientific health opinions that are both right and leftish, aggressive ideas about masculinity he takes a lot of dumb conspiracy theorists at their word. These are enough reasons for me to not really like his takes, but he's had good interviews, he's had liberal economic ideas expressed too, I just don't think the left and right buckets are useful.

bleah1000 6y ago

I think they shot themselves in the foot over the Joe Rogan thing. I suspect that they could have increased subscriptions by a large amount, but there were PR disasters all over the place. I suspect that a number of people decided not to move because of how things were handled. Or at least the appearance that Spotify might ban or censor Rogan's podcast. Right when the biggest hype for this acquisition was happening, all of the PR was negative. I wonder if as things cool off and no other issues occur, Joe Rogan fans will slowly move over, but time will tell.

happynacho 6y ago
Exactly, I see no reason to use Spotify podcasts over a dedicated app/service I already use.
- toper-centage 6y ago
  Specially where there are several FOSS apps.

waiseristy 6y ago

Why the hell would podcasts cause more users to purchase premium? It doesn't remove ads, it doesn't change the way you listen to podcasts on the app at all!

listless 6y ago
I assume the thinking goes something like this... "We know that x% of free accounts convert to premium. That means that if we can get more free accounts, we'll get more premium."

randycupertino 6y ago

I'll take a well done audiobook with a professional narrator any day and twice on Sunday over listening to a podcast. Too many poorly done podcasts out there saturating the market with such a low barrier to entry - anyone can spout an opinion on a mic. Hard pass.

nicbou 6y ago
On the other hand there is so much more variety to podcasts, and I like their somewhat bite-sized format. Sometimes I don't feel like thinking and just like to hear fun people shoot the bull. Other times I feel like hearing about a variety of topics. Podcasts are an amazing format in my opinion.
waiseristy 6y ago
The podcasts licensed by Spotify are usually very high quality. If your talking about the platform itself, there are plenty. Pleeeeeennnty of very bad audio books on Amazon too.

oxinabox 6y ago

Spotify is not a particularly nice tool to listen to podcasts in to begin with. AFAIK they haven't done anything to make podcasts different from music except section them off. Nothing in it makes it good for podcasts, I am not sure it even has an easy way to track which you have listen to and what is next? Also it's recommend podcast is hilariously insuitable. It's definately taken straight from its recommended music feature. It just recommends basically random things without context. Since a lot of podcasts are either: Serials, in which case it will happy suggest listening to epsiode 11 of a 22 epsisode story. Or current affairs, in which case it will happily suggest something from over 6 months ago.

paul_f 6y ago
This is so correct. Listening to podcasts on Spotify is an awful experience. They need a distinct podcast app IMO.

ChildOfChaos 6y ago

I don't understand how Spotify have paid so much for exclusive podcasts but hired a programer from Fiverr to do there UX.