Eric Nuzum, a podcast strategist and co-founder of the independent studio Magnificent Noise, said that “you have to separate Spotify away from the rest of the podcast industry” because the company has a different business model with two main revenue streams: subscriptions and advertising. And for years, the company was trying to figure out which one podcasting was supposed to serve, Mr. Nuzum added.
Spotify made those big investments and became “the 800-pound gorilla,” Mr. Nuzum said.
It quickly became clear that while much of the tech industry likes to “fail fast” and “move quickly,” that doesn’t work with journalism that can take months or years to create, and needs to build an audience or brand, Mr. Nuzum said.
Spotify’s past decision to keep some podcasts exclusive on the platform — rather than openly available on the internet and general podcasting apps — also killed much of the potential for reaching and growing audiences, Mr. Nuzum said.
Now, Spotify appears to be honing in on a strategy that they believe will make a podcast successful: bringing in celebrities with built-in fan bases, such as Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama, Meghan Markle and Joe Rogan, whose deal was said to be worth more than $200 million.
“The problem is you pay all the money to acquire the talent and put no investment into making the product good,” Mr. Nuzum said. “And I think that they got burned by that time and time and time again.”
Adam Satariano contributed reporting.
