I'm aggravated by this too. Having donated by Patreon but listened via Overcast, I feel a bit offended to be told "thanks for all the money, we're going over here to be free but behind a wall". I won't be installing Spotify, the convenience of a single app is not something I'll give up. My loss and not theirs, sure. But galling, a bit, that the $58k/month Patreon income[0] plus whatever they get from ads, touring, merch etc isn't enough for them to keep it out in the open :/

[0] https://www.patreon.com/lastpodcastontheleft

It's a risk they'll take. Look at what happened to ninja and shroud when they switched to mixer from twitch. They are probably down 70%+ on their viewers (based on me checking in infrequently) and mixer isn't even walled off. It is incredibly hard to wall off something in this age of plentiful entertainment and maintain the viewers you once had.

Twitch really could use some competition, but I thought their self-promotion was a bit dishonest. They tried to portrait themselves as the underdog. True, compared to twitch perhaps, but they are still owned by Microsoft. And on the topic on content discrimination you probably wouldn't want that as a viewr.

I pay for a Spotify premium family membership, and I used to listen to LPotL through Spotify. I switched to another podcast app a few weeks ago when Spotify started making noise about inserting targeted ads into podcasts, and I'll drop LPotL once they go exclusive. The absolute last thing I want is Spotify exerting Facebook-like control over audio.

Well it is voices they trust who tell them it's allright. And if tou had spotify installed anyways you might convince yourself it isn't such a big deal.

From the perspective of the podcaster the question is: what kind of fans will they loose with such a move, and what kind will they gain in return?

Also money.

Fewer, or different fans, but a funded show may be worth a lot more than more / great fans and an unfunded show.

I think it's also because Markus always wanted to have a music Podcast, and I think Spotify will help with the licensing/integration for that?