Spotify

Spotify’s fourth annual “Loud and Clear” report, which originally launched in 2021 following criticism over its lack of transparency, noted record accomplishments, including the highest annual payment from any retailer to the music industry.

Spotify has a plum position in the audio-streaming business. It’s the leading platform, with some 600 million users. Its 30% market share is twice that of its next-largest competitor. Spotify is adding millions of new subscribers a month, and few of its users cancel. Most companies can only dream of that kind of industry dominance. Yet not even the leading audio-streaming company has consistently made money off audio streaming.

Headcount will be reduced across the company, founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a blog post.

The music streaming company’s shares dipped 2.5% in premarket trading as its Q4 revenue forecast fell short of Wall Street views.

A partnership with OpenAI will let podcasters replicate their voices to automatically create foreign-language versions of their shows.

The digital streaming platform is now in the midst of restructuring its business. As part of the changes, its head of content and advertising, Dawn Ostroff, will leave the company after a four-year tenure. She was behind the audio streaming giant’s podcast push, which includes Joe Rogan’s controversial show that promoted alleged misinformation about COVID-19.

Omnicom Media Group has announced that it has committed to spending $20 million to advertise in podcasts distributed by Spotify Technology between now and the end of this year. The deal is the largest strategic podcast advertising partnership of its kind to date, according to the companies.

Joe Rogan, comedian, television host and mixed martial arts commentator, who has become one of the most influential and lucrative podcast hosts in recent years. is taking his podcast to Spotify Technology in a licensing deal worth more than $100 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. His full library, dating back 11 years, is to hit the service Sept. 1, and become exclusive to Spotify after that, before the end of the year.

Since she was tapped as Spotify’s chief content officer about a year ago, Dawn Ostroff has been charged with building an arsenal of podcasts to catapult the Swedish business to become a leader not just in music but also audio storytelling. Under her watch, the number of podcasts available on Spotify has grown to more than 450,000 titles, up from 185,000 in February.

Under the Higher Ground partnership announced Thursday, the former president and first lady will develop and lend their voices to select podcasts.

Podcasting, once viewed as a niche industry that catered to public radio fans, got a major boost this month when Swedish streaming giant Spotify agreed to pay around $230 million for Gimlet Media, the New York producer of such audio dramas as Homecoming and the documentary series Crimetown.

Spotify paid about $337 million for podcasting companies Gimlet Media and Anchor FM, according to a new filing with the SEC. That represents a big chunk of the $400 million to $500 million that the Swedish streaming giant said it plans to spend on podcasting companies this year.

Ellen DeGeneres has a new place to spin her favorite tunes: The talk-show host/comedian struck a content and promotion deal with Spotify, under which The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the music-streaming service partnership will promote each other.

While the platforms may not have anticipated the influx of hate speech and meddling from foreign powers like Russia, North Korea and China, they should have acted more quickly once they found it.