Popular Spotify podcasts are driving listeners to music streaming

As one of the top platforms for both podcasts and music, it is in Spotify’s best interest to encourage cross-format pollination. That is why Spotify periodically shares data indicating that artist appearances on popular podcasts make a meaningful impact on those artists’ streaming numbers. This cross-pollination data is also indicative of the appetite and potential of music podcasts on a platform where both music and podcasts are accessible.

In the summer of 2023, Variety published an article about the effect Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast has on boosting the streams of her musician guests. According to Spotify, Anitta’s streams increased by 155%, Madison Beer’s by 130%, John Legend’s by 200%, and John Mayer’s by 350% after each artist appeared on Cooper’s show. In March 2024, Spotify announced that The Joe Rogan Experience boosted guest Gary Clark Jr.’s streams by 500%. By demonstrating that artists benefit from being featured on a Spotify podcast, it not only encourages more record labels to consider podcast appearances as viable press opportunities, but also entices digital marketing teams to allocate some of their budget toward advertising on those podcasts. 

Spotify’s strategy, in theory, sends more users to both formats on the platform while also generating more advertising revenue, but it also suggests that there is some connection between podcast listening behaviour and music listening behaviour. Strategically driven or not, the data that Spotify does share indicate that guest spots by artists on prominent podcasts do move the needle, and that is because of the growing importance of music for podcasts – even on podcasts that are not explicitly related to music.