spotify

Some artists are leaving Spotify (again). Here’s what’s different now

7 Aug 2025

Over the past few weeks, a growing list of indie bands have decided to leave Spotify, the most prominent being Deerhoof and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (a partial list has been compiled by Fader ).

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With “short-form audiobooks”, Spotify has become an independent book publisher

Rutger Rosenborg

19 Mar 2025

Product Strategy Spotify Audio

On the heels of Spotify’s embrace of AI-generated audiobooks through their partnership with ElevenLabs, the streaming giant is looking to further democratise and monetise audiobooks. On March 13, Spotify’s For the Record blog announced a new publishing program aimed at independent authors publis...

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Why Spotify only hit profitability now (but will do so again)

Mark Mulligan

13 Feb 2025

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Spotify finally registered its first profitable year in 2024. It has hit net profit in individual quarters before – most recently in Q3 2023 – but this is the first year it was profitable throughout the year.

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Overanalysing our Spotify Wrapped: what MIDiA’s stats say about the industry

Tatiana Cirisano

12 Dec 2024

Spotify Wrapped Music Audience Insight

Last year, as Spotify’s annual Wrapped series hit the internet, MIDiA did what we do best: analyse, publishing a blog piece on what our own year-end data reflects about the state of music streaming and fandom.

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Audio is incidental: Why Spotify wants to become a creator ecosystem

Rutger Rosenborg

11 Dec 2024

Spotify Spotify Wrapped Podcasts

First there were artists, and then there were podcasters. Now, there are artists, creators, and authors on Spotify. As we covered at the end of November, Spotify has officially renamed its Spotify for Podcasters hub to Spotify for Creators as the company looks to unlock the power of video in podcast...

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The countdown begins for audiobooks on Spotify

Rutger Rosenborg

23 May 2024

Spotify Audiobooks Music publishing

As Spotify rolls out music-like features for audiobooks, the company still finds itself at odds with the music business, courting one publishing industry while ruffling the feathers of another. So far, Spotify’s publisher dilemma is only intensifying, making it all the more interesting that the co...

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What TikTok and Spotify have in common

Tatiana Cirisano

2 May 2024

TikTok Spotify music industry

In all likelihood, it has been years since anyone working in music went a week without talking about TikTok. In fact, the same probably goes for anyone with an internet connection. The platform’s clash — and now, reunion — with Universal Music Group; potential to be banned in the U.

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What got you here won’t get you there: how Spotify built a new business

Mark Mulligan

17 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Since its inception, Spotify has been, and continues to be, the streaming music market’s lightning rod. This is due to its continued ability to maintain leading market share and the fact it is the only leading global DSP that is independent and therefore has to focus place more focus on commercial...

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Why comments on Spotify podcasts are more about YouTube than community

Rutger Rosenborg

17 Jul 2024

Spotify YouTube youtube podcasts

In September 2021, Spotify launched the Q&A and polls features for podcasts on the platform. The impetus, according to Spotify’s For the Record blog, was to make podcasts more of a two-way street and “community-building medium.

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What Audible’s new royalty model means for its audiobook battle with Spotify

Rutger Rosenborg

1 Aug 2024

Audio Business Strategy Audiobooks

In early July, Audible’s blog broke the news that the company was introducing a new royalty model for audiobooks. Previously, according to Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman , Audible would do a “buyout”, paying a publisher an upfront fee to have their book on the service rather than distributing roy...

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As Spotify corners audiobooks, Audible eyes functional audio

Rutger Rosenborg

22 Mar 2024

Audiobooks Podcasts Spotify

Over the course of 30 years, Audible’s catalogue has grown to include more than 470,000 audiobooks, at least according to their own ads . In less than a year, Spotify’s catalogue has grown to include more than 200,000 audiobooks, which is already 42.

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As Spotify cuts back on podcast creation, opportunities arise for competitors in Latin America

Rutger Rosenborg

21 Aug 2024

Audio Business Strategy Spotify

In an early 2024 editorial for media and marketing publication Campaign, we declared, “ It is time for the podcast industry to think global and act local ”. Geared towards helping advertisers better optimise their content for international success, the larger context of this declaration was the ...

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Spotify wants to make podcasts a marketing driver for music

Rutger Rosenborg

4 Apr 2024

Podcasts Music streaming music industry

Last summer, 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 ...

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Spotify is fighting the podcast platform wars on multiple fronts

Rutger Rosenborg

10 Sep 2024

Audience Insight

Though Spotify started as a music streaming platform, it quickly conquered its primary competitor in the space, turning to podcasts to solidify the victory. Google has only recently diminished Spotify’s success with the growth of YouTube as an unofficial podcast platform — and all of this as Spotify simultaneously takes on Amazon’s previously...

New audiobook pricing gives Spotify the best of both worlds

Rutger Rosenborg

6 Mar 2024

Audiobooks Spotify Audible

In late 2023, Spotify slowly started rolling out audiobooks to Premium subscribers in select markets . In contrast with Spotify’s unlimited supply of music, Premium subscribers were allotted 15 hours (roughly two audiobook equivalents, according to Spotify) of audiobook listening per month.

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Spotify recognised podcasting’s true monetisation potential with its acquisition of Megaphone

Rutger Rosenborg

11 Oct 2024

Audience Insight

In 2016, Panoply Media made its newly acquired dynamic ad-insertion technology (formerly Audiometric) available under the name Megaphone. Through Megaphone, Panoply expanded from podcast publishing into podcast hosting, analytics, and advertising. With its largely self-serve technology geared toward podcast creators, Megaphone could become more tha...

Popular Spotify podcasts are driving listeners to music streaming

Rutger Rosenborg

17 Jun 2024

Free Report

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.

Audible competes with Spotify by considering the reasons consumers listen

Rutger Rosenborg

25 Jul 2024

Audience Insight

In coordination with World Sleep Day in March 2024, Audible announced the launch of sleep and relaxation-related titles for their recent Sleep Collection. According to Audible, the Sleep Collection is designed for users to “ discover bedtime stories, soundscapes, meditations, and more created to help you sleep and find relaxation any time of day ...