Dave Zohrob’s Post

Spotify recently released its annual trend report with insights and trends of Gen Z. I love reading those, not only because you might learn something new, but you also can get an idea of what a particular company sees as important. Three data figures caught my attention: 🤖 Gen Z is using Spotify's AI-powered DJ to stream over 1.5 billion minutes of music and recommendations globally. It is fascinating how AI is getting closer to the music territory. Just this month, there were news reports that YouTube is working on an AI tool that lets creators create audio using the voices of famous artists. I'm very curious about where it lands and whether it will have any effect on the industry. 👩🎓 75% of Zs in the US state that podcasts teach them about topics they wish they had learned about in school. This can open up a ton of possibilities for different brands to take that niche and provide that content. 💡 The completion rates for categories like True Crime and Comedy remain consistently high, with an average completion rate of over 80%. It seems that Spotify is betting on podcasts a lot, but I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, every research predicts the podcast market to grow. On the other, video content is growing faster! Podcasts will have to compete with Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok after all. And for now, I doubt this is the competition they can win. Maybe I'm wrong, so...let's wait and see. *The report is for the US, but it seems some trends are global. Source: Spotify Culture Next report 2023

🎧 Spotify Announces Workforce Reduction and Implications for IAB Certification 📉 Spotify is making some significant changes in response to its evolving business landscape. After reporting its first quarterly profit in over a year, Spotify has decided to undergo a major restructuring, which includes laying off approximately 1,500 employees, constituting about 17% of its workforce. In an email sent to employees, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek acknowledged the surprising scale of these layoffs, especially in light of the recent positive earnings report and the company's overall performance. This move follows the announcement of 800 job cuts earlier this year. Despite the workforce reduction news, Spotify's stock price surged by 7.5%. The specifics of which departments or roles will be affected by these layoffs remain unclear. However, a message from Megaphone's support team has added an air of uncertainty to the situation. On a related note, the podcasting industry is also facing an important development regarding IAB Podcast Measurement Certification. As of December 31, 2023, the IAB's v2.0 certification will no longer be valid. This has potential implications for some of the biggest names in podcasting, including Adswizz, Buzzsprout, Captivate, Chartable, Libsyn, PodBean, Podtrac, Simplecast, and "Anchor" (now Spotify Creator Studio), among others. These companies must either recertify under the new v2.1 standard or lose their certification status. A spokesperson from the IAB Tech Lab has stated, "We do expect companies who have not been certified on version 2.1 to be recertified or they will lose current status. They are welcome to regain status once they sign up again and complete the certification/audit process." It's reassuring to know that several companies are already in the process of recertification, ensuring continued adherence to industry standards. Amidst these changes, Spotify has also decided to cancel some well-loved podcast series, including "Heavyweight" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Stolen." However, it's important to note that these cancellations appear unrelated to the job cuts. Spotify has pledged to work closely with the show creators to facilitate a smooth transition for these series. These developments underscore the dynamic nature of the digital media and streaming industry, where companies must adapt to shifting landscapes and evolving industry standards. As professionals in this field, we should continue to monitor these developments and their potential impacts on our work and the broader industry. Source: https://buff.ly/3GtULmU Let's stay connected and engaged as we navigate these changes together. #Spotify #Podcasting #DigitalMedia #IABCertification #IndustryNews #WorkforceReduction

New "Technology" post from THE HILL: Joe Rogan strikes $250M deal with Spotify, including distribution on YouTube Joe Rogan, the popular podcaster and media personality, has struck a fresh distribution deal with audio provider Spotify for "The Joe Rogan Experience." The deal, estimated to be worth up to $250 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, involves an upfront minimum guarantee in addition to a revenue-sharing agreement based on advertising sales. In a deviation from his first deal with the company, under the new deal Spotify will sell ads for and distribute Rogan's show in a video format on YouTube, the Journal noted. Rogan began podcasting in 2009 and has grown in popularity in the years since. He was propelled to megastar status with his first deal with Spotify in 2020, worth a reported $200 million. The former comedian and host of "Fear Factor" has sparked controversy on a number of occasions with his commentary on the coronavirus pandemic, politics and other current events. He faced particular backlash for spreading disinformation related to the COVID-19 vaccine. In 2022, a top executive at Spotify called the backlash the company received over some of the content on Rogan's podcast a “real learning experience" after the company pulled dozens of episodes off its platform. "I’ve also learned so much — not just from all the episodes themselves — but also from all the audiobooks I’ve listened to, articles and books that I’ve read, and documentaries I’ve watched either for the show, or because of the show," Rogan said as part of a blog post announcing his new deal with Spotify. "I always feel like, in starting this podcast, I stumbled into this fantastic accidental education just by being interested in talking to people, and being fortunate enough that people want to listen." https://bit.ly/4bkcXxx

During Spotify's second-quarter earnings call, CEO Daniel Ek left us buzzing with excitement as he hinted at the incredible possibilities AI could unlock for the streaming service. From more personalized experiences to summarizing podcasts and revolutionizing ads, Spotify is poised to take our music journey to the next level. Ek couldn't hide his enthusiasm for the recent DJ feature, a hit among users, which pairs AI-powered spoken commentary with hand-picked music, showcasing Spotify's prowess in contextualizing and personalizing content. But that's just the beginning! Spotify plans to explore generative AI to summarize podcasts, making it easier for us to dive into new audio adventures and boosting creators' reach. The magic doesn't stop there! Ek envisions AI-generated audio ads that could revolutionize the advertising landscape, allowing brands to craft thousands of engaging ads, all finely tested across Spotify's networks. As Spotify seeks a patent for its AI-powered "text-to-speech synthesis" system, the company's commitment to AI voice technology shines brighter than ever. The system's ability to create natural-sounding speech, complete with emotions and intentions, opens doors to narrating audiobooks and enhancing user experiences. Spotify's journey into AI doesn't come as a surprise, given its previous acquisition of Sonantic, a startup pioneering realistic human voices from text. With their AI DJ feature already resonating with users, we can't wait to see how these new developments will hit all the right notes and create harmonious music experiences for us all! #Spotify #AIInnovation #Personalization #Podcasts #AI #TechAdvancements

Last month's shift in podcast 🎤 strategy at Spotify is a good case study in media business models. Spotify started offering podcasts in 2015, launched analytics 🔍 (called Spotify for Podcasters) back in 2018 but really stepped up their focus on podcasting in more recent years. Spotify for Podcasters was enhanced significantly in March 2023 to provide a well rounded tool for podcasters. The original goal for Spotify was to drive growth through new subscribers, however over the years some headwinds appeared that challenged the strategy: • Whilst exact figures are hard to come by, PodPod reports that YouTube is leading podcast viewership whilst Apple has about double the volume of downloads ⬇️ compared to Spotify (about 50% against 25%). In other words, Spotify does not have a distribution monopoly • Within the Spotify "exclusives" 🔒, the biggest show (by Joe Rogan) is also the most divisive one and might even cause some users to quite the service • Non celebrity podcasts that are exclusive to Spotify don´t cause people to switch to Spotify from other platforms. These shows don´t help Spotify with either growth or retention whilst the creators' reach is constrained due to the volumes mentioned before As a result, Spotify announced a shift in strategy last month: • Given that the non-celebrity shows are not signficant for subscription revenue, Spotify's new strategy seems to shift towards advertising 📣 based model • As advertising depends entirely on engagement, it would make sense for Spotify to de-emphasize exclusivity as a result. As explained by The Verge in their set of articles, an increasing amount of shows might be labelled as Spotify Original, but no longer be exclusive • As a result, last month Spotify launched Ad Analytics 🔍, which will help advertisers figure out where their advertising dollars are leading to the highest return What can we learn from Spotify's journey? • Since subscription services are about the value of a bundle, growth and churn reduction has to be significant for any given content element to make a difference for the bundle • For advertising based services, exclusivity is clearly counterproductive. One example here are the most relevant #fastchannels also being those that have a wide set of partnerships in place Spotify's move from subscription to advertising: https://buff.ly/46kuOlg Statistics on podcast listening volumes: https://buff.ly/3rzivlf Quantifying the impact of exclusivity: https://buff.ly/3CvhvjR

Spotify launches their own A.I. DJ…     Here are three ways this product launch connects to their current and new potential Generation Z customers: (Which make up 25% of their total weekly active users.)   Personalisation:  Gen Z craves customisation and needs to feel a sense of personalisation and specialisation towards the products and services they consume. When the A.I. DJ recognises my name and song preferences, I feel a sense of greater product satisfaction. Forced Choice: (illuminating anxiety) 48% of Gen-Z said they feel stressed or anxious most of the time. When it comes to making public decisions that affect their status or relationships, their anxiety soars even higher! That’s why Spotify’s DJ choosing songs on behalf of Gen Z reduces their chance of being judged by their friends.   Network Affect:  The most powerful marketing mechanism is and will always be ‘word of mouth.’ Through social, online, and in-person sharing, Spotify’s feature creates an organic buzz that is sure to generate new customers!   What are your thoughts on Spotify’s new feature? 👇   #genz #genzmarketing #spotify #podcast #tech #linkedin #marketing #hr #socialmediamarketing

My Spotify is a mess. Am I alone in this? (This is actually about content management, if you read all the way 😜) When I open Spotify the home page is full of things I don't want right now. My son's content is mixed into mine. My suggestions don't suggest things I want, or at least, things I want right now. I saw it coming, but I did nothing to stop it. So, yes, it's my fault. When the Spotify Kids app wasn't able to surface the content I was looking for for my son, I just went back to Spotify. When Google decided to EOL their Podcasts apps (which I'm still salty about), I didn't feel like picking a new app, so I decided I'd try Spotify. Clutter, clutter, clutter. But it's also Spotify's fault. Their UX design decisions leave a lot to be desired. The fixes aren't hard. Give me very simple filters at the app level that align with what I'm using it for at that moment. Never once have I opened Spotify to throw on some music and decided what I really wanted was some Blue's Clues Story Time. OK, so just a rant about a less-than-awesome app design? Nope! This is *also* a classic silo/centralize problem. When all I was managing in Spotify was my music, it worked great. Now that I brought in similar but different content, I've broken my user experience. Getting to the song or podcast I want is no different than getting to the answer on your docs site. The more stuff in my way, the more annoyed I'll be and the less likely I am to get there. Pathing and organization decisions are critical parts of information architecture and content strategy. And for most organizations, they're much more complicated than podcast vs music, even when considering two personas (kid stuff, dad stuff). Content work is hard work. But it makes all the difference with user outcomes when done well.

I don't know Ryan at all. And I have zero insight into what happened here aside from what's in his post. So this could be entirely off base. His news, though, makes me once again want to point out that if a massive tech company that's still trying to call itself a startup wants to run an experiment or has a hunch/wild hair that a product feature will do well, maybe make sure it won't cost the jobs of dozens or hundreds of people if it doesn't go well. Or, even better, think holistically and long-term before working on that feature and hiring a new team for it. AND MAYBE don't try to be everything to everyone - it doesn't have to be that way - and focus on your broken-ass royalty model. Maybe, just maybe you can figure out how to support smaller artists who have loyal listeners and not a lot of resources. :) (this is not aimed at you, Ryan, it's aimed at the company)

Here's a not-little story of my experience last week with Spotify. I will preface this with a reminder that Daniel Ek dumped more than 20% of Spotify's workforce in 2023 to boost investor gains (and, presumably, his own) and then had the gall to act surprised this April that doing so had had a negative impact on company performance. My podcast, Boring Books for Bedtime, has published an episode every Monday for 5.5 years. Each of those 300 episodes consists of me reading a book in the public domain with a backing track of Creative Commons music (a lot of which was provided directly to me by its wonderful composer, Lee Rosevere). Last Monday's episode was a reading from Machiavelli's "The Prince," published in 1532. Very, very public domain. The music was a track I've used dozens of times. Monday morning, I received an email that I first thought was a phish, because it made no sense. "Hello, Our automatic review tools determined that this podcast may contain content that infringes the rights of a third party. While this claim is under investigation, this content has been taken down." Sure enough, no "The Prince." I clicked the response link, making it very clear why that flag was incorrect. It was on me to explain why every single element of my podcast was fine, because they never said what their bot felt was infringing (I still don't know). And...nothing. No response, no clarification, no podcast. On Wednesday, I tried going through support on Spotify for Podcasters. The first layer was a bot. When my problem didn't match the canned questions, it passed me on to a representative, "Pam." Pam was also a bot, but pretending to be human. After I copied the text of the email into the chat, Pam went silent and then came back and declared it was time for her to go on break, but she'd be handing me off to a fellow representative. This was "Allan," a person. Allan used a lot of fun Spotify buzzwords like "backstage," but couldn't actually do anything. He said he would get "backstage" to prioritize my issue, whatever that means, and passed me to a survey. Two days later, I got an email. "Thank you for reaching out. Upon review, we have now restored the content on the Service." The episode appeared after that. I still have no idea what the bot system found objectionable, nor will I ever know. As far as I can tell, there was one human involved in this process, and he was powerless. Maybe a person reviewed my initial response, but I don't know. The entire episode was unnecessary and frustrating for me and thousands of subscribers. And there's nothing I can do about it, or do to make sure it doesn't happen again. But Daniel Ek and his investors are richer, I guess. Good for them. As I work on a new podcast, I'm left wondering, how can creatives reach audiences without these increasingly machine-dependent, error-filled systems? Is it even possible?

Kya hua tera wada - Spotify goes bewafa😜 Spotify hits the phase where it ain’t possible for him to carry on without you paying him first! This problem is now happening with evey app these days. Root Cause? Freemium based business model - Service is free for you to use but once you get hooked (like from songs you went to news then to podcasts) you want more right, and if you want more you have to pay 💰 Freemium is a term which was started in late 1980 to sell softwares like tangibly speaking software is not a product on which you can put a price tag (Sir please buy L Size of M-Excel it will fit you right, lame joke 🫠) In 1980’s exposure towards tech was less, how can you make peope pay if they can’t feel it, touch it but you are still adding value so you need to ask a price for it’s utilization. Bingo - You sell it for free first, let them use it, let them reach a point where they feel they can’t do anything without it (Try living without your phone for a day, i bet you won’t 😂) Now comes your Brahmastra - Now like a polite salesman ask them for a few bucks if they want toppings on pizza, start it slow don’t rush ask for a few cents only, they will pay, well now once you have your first trache make their life tough, increase the value added service price step by step you have effectively enslaved their mentality. Social media is a mass media product it was designed to reach masses and when it reaches its mass demand level, simply put up a banner in front of your shop “Pay if you want classes” Deuce 🎧 Disclaimer - I forgot to mention the image source i don’t know who is the publisher, if you know kindly tag him in the comments #spotifymusic #premium #freemium #linkedin #branding #subscription