Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails

Re:Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails by rsynnott on Thursday June 22, 2023 @08:23AM (#36431047)

This whole idea of platform-specific podcasts always seemed a little odd, anyway. If a podcast that I listen to went to a specific platform, I'd... probably just stop listening to it? Life is too short.

> “Someone joked to me the other day that Spotify spent a billion dollars to become Acast,”

I think that's probably optimistic for Spotify. I listened to, at peak, I think, three podcasts from Acast (two have since ended), and would definitely recognise the name. I'd completely forgotten Spotify even _did_ podcasts until this article.

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Re:Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails by SonicScrub on Thursday June 22, 2023 @09:28AM (#36431852)

I know I'm just one voice, but a podcast I listened to moved behind the Spotify platform, and I just stopped listening to it. I was already bought-in to that platform. I use Spotify premium for music. But only for music. I don't want my recommendations filling up with podcasts, I want my music platform to be my music platform. I use my podcast app for podcasts. It's better at it. And no amount of exclusives is going to change that when there is an endless ocean of interesting podcasts that can fill each my interest niches easily available on my podcast app.

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Re:Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails by dwaltrip on Thursday June 22, 2023 @10:55AM (#36433094)

I started using Spotify for podcasts occasionally, and it hasn’t seemed to clutter anything up for me. But if you already have a podcast app you love, that makes sense.

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Re:Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails by Shawnj2 on Thursday June 22, 2023 @11:00PM (#36442301)

Spotify’s podcast player is fine, but there are better ones. They clearly did put effort into it, it’s on par with the Apple Podcasts app IMO, but small indie apps have a knack for making better products than huge companies.

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Re:Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails by user_named on Thursday June 22, 2023 @09:47AM (#36432108)

Just like you don't watch Youtubers who are only ton YouTube, or HBO series that are only on HBO.

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Re:Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails by rsynnott on Thursday June 22, 2023 @10:41AM (#36432875)

I don't watch Youtube, in general (exception; certain old BBC sitcoms which the BBC doesn't bother copyright claiming are there). I subscribe to a couple of TV streaming services, but if something isn't on one of them, well, I don't watch it.

I'm actually a Spotify subscriber, but I don't think I'd listen to podcasts on it; I have a workflow for listening to podcasts which I don't want to mess with. Ultimately, podcasts come and go, and I have too many of them to listen to anyway.

(Exception: if Three Bean Salad went to Spotify, I'd probably grudgingly listen to it there. Don't get any ideas, Spotify.)

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Re:Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails by DropInIn on Thursday June 22, 2023 @01:56PM (#36436125)

Most podcast listeners are just that: Listeners.

There is a vast chasm between podcast listeners and video viewers....

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Re:Spotify’s podcast plan went off the rails by Shawnj2 on Thursday June 22, 2023 @09:48PM (#36441829)

There is one non Spotify platform specific podcast I sometimes listen to (the Nebula podcast for Jet Lag) but they distribute it as an RSS feed + the honor system or a player in their app/website for people who don’t know how to set up RSS, and it makes sense since the podcast is effectively a bonus perk for the people who are funding the show so it’s not like they’re building an exclusive podcast platform or anything.

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