Spotify's Battle to Win Hearts, Minds and Ears

It’s no surprise that Spotify is the most popular global audio streaming service. From generating personalized playlists, helping you discover new music and allowing you to see what songs your friends are listening to in real time, what’s not to love about this streaming titan?

Collision hosted a fireside chat with Spotify’s chief content and advertising business officer, Dawn Ostroff to discuss the new market Spotify plans to dominate - podcasts. Podcasts have won over the hearts and ears of people across the globe, allowing people to learn something new, investigate a mysterious murder, or simply have a much needed laugh. The man who has undoubtedly captured the attention of listeners everywhere is Joe Rogan.

Joe is the top podcaster in the world with notable guests such as Elon Musk, Lance Armstrong and Chris Hadfield. Joe signed a licensing deal with Spotify where his content will exclusively be on their platform starting in December. While anyone can listen to Joe on a free Spotify account with the accompanying 30 second ads every so often, a whopping 60% of Spotify’s free users convert to paid subscribers. Dawn Ostroff said Spotify’s goal is to be the #1 audio streaming platform, and Joe is the top podcaster, so it seemed like a natural fit. After all, if you want to be the best, you have to work with the best. Spotify hopes that Joe will bring in his already loyal fanbase to the platform and these listeners will ditch the freemium model for a paid account.

There has been an overwhelming increase in people creating podcasts due to COVID. Dawn also noted a shift in the content users are consuming. Staying at home has led to people using gaming consoles to listen to music and there has been a rise in “mood” themed playlists and health podcasts, signaling the users shifted interests.

While the new deal with Joe signals Spotify's determination to win the streaming wars, they haven’t stopped there. Spotify has also done a deal with DC Comics which grants them access to all of Warner Brother’s assets. They plan on making podcasts with classic superhero characters we all know and love.

While Spotify has made serious strides in the audio streaming arena, it’ll be interesting to see if their investments pay off and how their competition will retaliate.