Spotify Has Removed Some Of It's Podcasts From Rival Platforms

Spotify has bought several podcast production studios in the past couple of years, and often it has left their shows on other podcasting platforms rather than making them exclusive to its service. That policy appears to be evolving now, however. “We want to acknowledge that some have pointed out to us that their favourite Spotify-produced podcasts have disappeared from their usual podcast feeds,” announced the company yesterday. “To enhance our discovery and editorial prowess, in the last few months we’ve brought some of our shows exclusively to Spotify.” Shows including ‘Serial Killers’, ‘Horoscope Today’, ‘Motherhacker’ and ‘How to Save a Planet’ are the ones named in the post. There is come careful messaging here: stressing twice that the shows are still available for free, it’s just that they’re only on Spotify. In truth this is not a surprise, although it means Spotify will not be using these shows as marketing vehicles (by including ads for its service when they are available elsewhere) or boosting the reach of its Spotify Audience Network ads to rival platforms with them.