FTA it’s a little more nuanced than that. People are listening to white noise podcasts when regular white noise is available at a cheaper licensing cost.

It feels like a UI challenge as much as anything else, I can’t imagine many users specifically want a podcast. Part of me feels like Spotify deserves it though, they’ve been trying to shove podcasts into users ears for ages now and I don’t want them. Turns out if you shove podcasts in front of people they’ll choose them. Price they pay.