Blog: Exclusive

In the past six months, many major platforms made cuts to their audio departments. Spotify has announced a new round of layoffs in its podcast division, eliminating 200 jobs from Gimlet and Parcast Studios.

Last week, The New York Times (NYT) debuted their official audio app, NYT Audio . NYT produces many popular podcasts, including The Daily and This American Life , utilising multiple streaming platforms to grow their audiences.

The rise of podcast videos are breathing new life into the audio market. Since 20% (Q4 2022 MIDiA Research) of all consumers are watching podcast videos, and content must often exist in multiple formats to attract attention today, both listeners and platforms, like Spotify , are shifting their focus to visual podcasts.

This year podcasts also received the “wrapped” treatment that has been given to music. Both Spotify and Apple released their top shows of 2022, inadvertently highlighting their different podcasting strategies.

Spotify has already begun its pursuit of gen Z on the music side, and now is doing the same for podcasts. Emma Chamberlain, the 21-year-old YouTuber and coffee company owner, has signed an exclusive podcast deal with Spotify.

Apple has been quieter than its other podcast competitors in the past, but it is continuing to develop its audio offerings. Apple’s most noteworthy attempt to expand its platform thus far was introducing podcast subscriptions to entice creators and compete against Spotify’s offerings.

Two audio giants with investments in podcasting — Spotify and SiriusXM — published their second quarter earnings for the year. SiriusXM saw marginal year-over-year growth in revenue – around 4% – although it was still able to increase its paid subscribers by 23,000 users, bringing its total subscribers to 34 million.

The egg that beat Kylie Jenner for the highest number of likes on an Instagram photo partnered with Hulu to promo an ad following the Super Bowl. Rather than ‘sell out’ for a branded message, The Egg’s (also known by fans as ‘Eugene’) first spot on Hulu (titled: S1 E1), was a message encouraging people coping with mental health issues to seek support from Mental Health America – providing the relevant links.