Spotify’s investment in podcasts appears to be starting to pay off. In some U.S. states, listeners are moving away from Apple and towards the service traditionally associated with music streaming.
Spotify Challenging For Podcast Supremacy
According to a new report by Voxnest, as of March, Spotify had only claimed New Jersey from Apple. However, it was briefly the leading podcast provider in both California and New York at points during the first quarter of 2020. Furthermore, it has taken over from Apple in a few countries, notably Australia and Ireland.
Alongside its recent results, Spotify revealed its podcast catalog now topped over 1 million. It’s important not to overstate what’s happening. Apple still dominates the podcast space globally and in key markets. However, its rival’s increased focus in this area is certainly starting to pay off.
And clearly there’s a push from companies that can benefit from more than one player in podcasts, like Voxnest (above).
But trying to claim particular States, does seem to be splitting hairs. Like claiming higher sales in this supermarket than another supermarket. Maybe this is fluid and changes forward and back, or there’s a trend. Who really knows?
Here in Australia, Spotify is THE popular music streamer, being years ahead of Apple Music. I was offered any Spotify channel I like to block the noise for 45 minutes in one of those big round medical scanners. Don’t know if that was official or unofficial. And all major telcos here offer, sometimes up to a year of free Apple Music, to get customers hooked and eventually pay. Music is the battle field. Podcasts are a maybe…
As for podcasts in Australia? I don’t know any non-tech people that listen to podcasts, so I’m guessing ANY Sportify podcast penetration is due to it’s music streaming presence, but I don’t see much of a market here for podcasts, Downunder. So claiming Australia would be just like claiming New Jersey… a stat, but how relevant, even if it were a fact? Apple’s top100 in Australia are predominately true-crime shows, but that’s weighted, not by downloads and I’ll guarantee not by engagement.
I suspect the “success” of podcasts in the US is highly engaged listeners… really are likely to buy an internet mattress or get tonight’s ingredients delivered… or set up servers/websites. Longevity over flash-in-the-pan true crime singularities. Media/advertising is of course sizing up the potential for making money out of podcasts, turning them back into a media model they understand -with even more stats. Whether the advertising take-over will ever amount to anything, is dubious. But Spotify will be a more eager and accomodating partner than Apple. Hence the PUSH mentioned back at the beginning of my comment… phew!