Spotify announces Podcasts in India; aims to go “local”

Audio streaming service Spotify has announced its first three original podcasts for India. All the podcasts tap into pop culture, the first one being cricket-centric ‘22 Yarns with Gaurav Kapur’, next is a fiction thriller ‘Bhaskar Bose’ narrated by Mantra, and finally love and relationship advice-based ‘Love Aaj Kal’ by Aastha and Ankit. These will go live on Spotify on December 3, 2019.

The announcement comes as a reiteration to Spotify’s global audio-first strategy that focusses on the brand’s potential to grow faster with more original podcasts. The launch of these new series also opens the opportunity for India’s growing creator community to work with the company, creating and delivering content in engaging audio formats. As with music artists, Spotify aims to offer better discovery, data, and monetisation to podcast creators.

“Storytelling is intrinsic to India, and almost nostalgic because most of us have grown up listening to stories that our grandparents and parents told us; Spotify wants to re-establish that listening culture, especially as users seek more screen-free moments. We are thrilled to partner with these talented storytellers who’ve managed to explore different aspects of the local culture to deliver differentiated content and rekindle the love Indians have for audio,” says Amarjit Singh Batra, managing director - India, Spotify.

With over 5,00,000 podcast titles on the platform, up from 10,000 in 2018, Spotify has seen exponential growth in the podcast hours streamed globally (up approximately 39 per cent from Q2 2019 to Q3 2019), with podcast adoption reaching almost 14 per cent of total monthly active users (MAUs). And while the US accounts for the largest share of podcast streams, a majority of the growth and listening is, reportedly coming from outside the US

“Just a little over a year ago, we announced Spotify for Podcasters, which provides listener insights to all creators who have podcasts on our platform. Today, we have 1,40,000 registered creators across the world, and the data for a few of these creators shows that India features in their top streamed markets. Much of this content is lifestyle, educational, and news,” adds Singh.

Spotify’s research shows, 50 per cent of podcast listeners say, ads are more relevant, seamless, or entertaining than typical ads, making it a relevant communication platform.