Spotify Cancels Two Acclaimed Podcasts: ‘Heavyweight’ and ‘Stolen’

Spotify, the audio streaming platform, mentioned on Tuesday that it will not renew its contracts for 2 critically acclaimed podcasts, “Heavyweight” and “Stolen,” the most recent signal of the corporate curbing its podcasting ambitions because it struggles to change into constantly worthwhile.

The exhibits, that are produced by Gimlet Media, the podcast studio Spotify acquired in 2019, will conclude their seasons after which have the choice to buy their exhibits elsewhere.

“We are extremely proud of the teams who have supported these talented storytellers across each of the incredible episodes of ‘Heavyweight’ and ‘Stolen,’” a Spotify spokeswoman mentioned, including that the corporate will “work with the show creators to ensure a smooth transition for wherever these series go next.”

“Heavyweight” was hosted by Jonathan Goldstein and for seven seasons delved into the tales that form folks’s lives, searching for to assist them create higher endings. The present’s creators mentioned on social media, “We’re so proud of everything we’ve made, and we’re hoping the show finds a new home in the future.”

“Stolen,” which acquired the Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting this yr, was created by Connie Walker, a journalist who investigated her late father’s life and his expertise and that of a whole lot of different Indigenous youngsters in Canada’s residential faculty system.

The determination got here a day after Spotify introduced that it will lower almost a fifth of its work power, its third spherical of layoffs thus far this yr, because it seeks constant profitability. The layoffs and discount in podcast choices comes because the know-how trade contends with the top of a decade of low rates of interest that fueled progress.

Media corporations have additionally suffered from a shortfall of promoting income, partly fueled by leaner promoting budgets and financial anxieties a couple of attainable recession that by no means fairly occurred.

Those forces have led some massive know-how and media corporations to keep up their investments in so-called “always on” exhibits that publish each day or weekly, and cut back their investments in restricted run or seasonal sequence, that are more durable to make worthwhile, mentioned Nick Quah, the author of HotPod, a well-liked publication about podcasts.

“All of this is happening, this economic instability, but the fact of the matter is, there’s still tons of podcast audiences,” Mr. Quah mentioned. “There’s an existential way in which we’re talking about the podcast industry at this point, but audiences have continued to grow.”

A 2023 report from Edison analysis about podcast shoppers discovered that podcasts have extra mainstream listeners than ever who’re receptive to podcast advertisements.

About 64 % of the U.S. inhabitants older than 12 years outdated have listened to a podcast, and roughly 120 million folks in the identical demographic had just lately listened to a podcast, the report discovered.

Spotify, like different tech corporations, was principally pushed throughout the pandemic by the pursuit of potential progress, Mr. Quah mentioned.

The firm paid $230 million for Gimlet Media in 2019 and round $200 million extra for The Ringer, Bill Simmons’s sports activities media firm, in 2020. Later that yr, as shoppers spent much more time listening to podcasts throughout the pandemic, Amazon purchased the favored podcast studio Wondery for $300 million, whereas SiriusXM paid $325 million for the platform and writer Stitcher.

But then the increase, or at the very least the obvious potential to capitalize on that increase, pale, and Spotify was left with a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} price of product.

Eric Nuzum, a podcast strategist and co-founder of the unbiased studio Magnificent Noise, mentioned that “you have to separate Spotify away from the rest of the podcast industry” as a result of the corporate has a distinct enterprise mannequin with two foremost income streams: subscriptions and promoting. And for years, the corporate was attempting to determine which one podcasting was speculated to serve, Mr. Nuzum added.

Spotify made these huge investments and have become “the 800-pound gorilla,” Mr. Nuzum mentioned.

It shortly grew to become clear that whereas a lot of the tech trade likes to “fail fast” and “move quickly,” that doesn’t work with journalism that may take months or years to create, and must construct an viewers or model, Mr. Nuzum mentioned.

Spotify’s previous determination to maintain some podcasts unique on the platform — somewhat than brazenly out there on the web and basic podcasting apps — additionally killed a lot of the potential for reaching and rising audiences, Mr. Nuzum mentioned.

Now, Spotify seems to be homing in on a method that they consider will make a podcast profitable: bringing in celebrities with built-in fan bases, reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama, Meghan Markle and Joe Rogan, whose deal was mentioned to be price greater 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 mentioned. “And I think that they got burned by that time and time and time again.”