While starting to say goodbye to the collaboration with the Obama spouses for the creation of exclusive podcasts, Spotify has announced that it has launched an important novelty, that of video podcasts.
Spotify, the famous audio streaming platform headquartered in Sweden, in the past few hours reported the launch of an important novelty, relating to the launch for all, in some markets, of video podcasts: in the meantime, the platform is about to lose one of the collaborations prince of its bouquet of podcasters, as the Obamas will not renew their broadcast agreement.
While planning their life outside the White House, the Obamas – in 2019 – signed an agreement, through their production company Higher Ground, with Spotify to produce several programs in the form of podcasts: starting from that moment, they are big hits have been published, such as “Renegades: Born in the USA”, in which the former president chatted with Bruce Springsteen, and “The Michelle Obama Podcast”, where his better half, Michelle, conversed on the subject of relationships with friends and family members.
The collaboration in question, according to sources close to the negotiations who preferred to remain anonymous, would be on the verge of not being renewed: among the reasons, there would be the couple’s opposition to the contractual formula of Spotify, which provides for an exclusivity that for the Obama would limit their audience, the fact that few of their proposals (just 5) would be accepted by the Swedish platform, not to mention that the Obama programs are in limited edition, while other successful programs (eg. SmartLess) are broadcast on weekly. In addition, the idea of Higher Ground would have been to use Spotify for programs with a certain plurality of voices, while Spotify would only be interested in programs with the two famous spouses, so only in January was “The Big Hit Show” broadcast. , a show that didn’t even include the former president.
As a consequence of this, with Spotify having withdrawn from the negotiations (assuming that the Obama programs, in the absence of exclusivity, would still arrive on its platform), the two former White House tenants had no choice but to look for another home for its podcasts, with negotiations, for a tens of millions of dollars deal, entered into with iHeartMedia and Audible from Amazon.
Moving on to more concrete news, Spotify announced, after that this was previously possible only for some selected users, that now all creators, in markets such as Canada, USA, UK, New Zealand and Australia (and soon in Europe), they can upload video-podcasts for free, using the Anchor service, which also provides metrics on traffic generated and ratings, and opportunities to monetize (more will be added in the coming months) the uploaded content.
According to what was communicated by the platform, creators will also be able to convert existing audio-only ones into video podcasts and increase audience engagement with question and answer sessions and surveys: on the other hand, users, by exiting the app while a video podcast is playing, they will also be able to continue their use in the background, in audio-only form.