“With The Ringer, we’re basically getting the new ESPN,” said Spotify CEO Daniel Ek during the earnings call this morning, shortly after the company sent out word that it had officially acquired The Ringer, the distinctly podcast-heavy digital media company founded by former ESPN personality Bill Simmons. It’s something of a cheeky statement, given the […]

While digging through my Spotify profile this past weekend, I came across an intriguing discovery: Gimlet had been republishing five- to seven-minute excerpts of its podcast Science Vs as new, standalone episodes, made specifically to fit into the algorithmic playlist Your Daily Drive on Spotify. These shorter episodes are set aside as an entirely different […]

This Week in Spotify. Yesterday, the company released a feature that lets users “build playlists of podcasts, or add podcasts to existing playlists for a mixed-media experience.” The feature is said to be frequently requested. Playlists are crucial for Spotify, serving as the underlying construct for many of its discovery mechanisms. Think the popular Rap […]

Spotify has made two interesting personnel moves to bolster its podcast development pipeline around two key genres, sports and news, according to a report by The Information that dropped on Friday. Firstly, the company has hired Amy Hudson, most recently the sports media partnerships lead at Facebook, to oversee its sports programming assets. Secondly, David […]