Audio giant Spotify will be launching a new original podcast series with late night host and comedian Trevor Noah later this year, the company has announced, with the new show not remaining exclusive to Spotify’s platform.
The podcast announcement was made this morning at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity in France during a session between Noah and Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek. The company is running a number of sessions on ‘Spotify Beach’ throughout the festival with its creators, and is also recording bonus content of its newly-launched marketing competition show The Perfect Pitch on location.
Noah’s weekly podcast with Spotify will feature him having in-depth conversations with a number of influential figures around the world, discussing and giving their opinions on the most relevant topics of today.
“It’s really exciting to be joining Spotify on a fun new adventure where we’ll engage in interesting and meaningful conversations with some of the world’s most fascinating people,” said Noah. "We'll also probably fix every single issue humankind has ever faced so you definitely want to join us for every episode.”
"Spotify is the ultimate audio destination, and partnering with Trevor Noah, one of the world’s most brilliant and distinctive voices, will make for captivating storytelling that will delight our more than 100 million podcast listeners around the world,” said Spotify vice president and head of global podcast studios Jule McNamara. “We are excited to collaborate with Trevor to create an original podcast that seamlessly combines his unique humor, insightful commentary, and consummate interview skills on a global scale.”
The podcast will not be exclusive to Spotify and will be made available on “numerous platforms”, according to the company, representing a marked change from previous policy. The company’s established strategy has so far revolved around driving new subscriptions through launching exclusive shows with big name creators that Spotify has signed with, such as Louis Theroux, Alex Cooper, Joe Rogan, and more.
Spotify has already been recently loosening its exclusivity over some of its original podcasts, after first announcing in April that it would begin distributing some of its Gimlet original podcasts across wider platforms in order to broaden its audience and increase ad sales.
Spotify also started relinquishing exclusivity over some of its podcasts with big name creators such as Emma Chamberlain, whose exclusivity deal with the company over her podcast Anything Goes ended at the start of June, only seven months since signing it. The podcast is now available to listen to across all podcast platforms while video episodes of the podcast remain exclusive to Spotify users.
PodPod had previously reached out to Spotify for a comment on ending the exclusivity deal with Emma Chamberlain’s Anything Goes podcast but has not received a reply. Spotify has, however, been cutting costs over the past year in an attempt to reduce its operating loss costs which reached €224 million (£198m) in 2022.
As of Q1 2023, the platform has since reduced its operating loss by 32% after reducing its global workforce by 6% in January. The number will likely continue to go down later in the year as Spotify has cut a further 2% of its workforce in June this year, made a number of its podcasts available across wider podcast platforms, and most recently ended its content deal with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry which was reportedly worth $20 million - according to various news outlets.
The audio giant also recently announced the newest phase of its podcast strategy. which included combining podcast studios Gimlet and Parcast, both of which the platform acquired in 2019, into its preexisting Spotify Studios organisation. Spotify later confirmed to PodPod that this means more podcasts from Gimlet and Parcast will be distributed across more platforms.
