Spotify’s podcast future is much less originals, extra creators

That is Sizzling Pod, The Verge’s publication about podcasting and the audio business. Enroll here for extra.

When Spotify introduced yesterday that it could lay off 200 staff from its podcast unit and mix Gimlet and Parcast right into a single operation, it got here as a shock to exterior observers. However former and present podcast staff at Spotify have seen the writing on the wall for a while. 

“We undoubtedly have anticipated for a number of months now that they’d be axing folks because the vibe at Gimlet had been very a lot one among strolling on eggshells for months now,” one former Gimlet worker who was part of yesterday’s layoffs instructed Sizzling Pod. “Zero pleasure. [The layoffs] have been extra only a matter of when. The truth that it was yesterday, that was the shock.”

It’s been greater than a 12 months since Spotify first eliminated its namesake podcast manufacturing unit. Final fall, Spotify laid off dozens of Gimlet and Parcast staff and pulled 11 unique exhibits from manufacturing. It started this 12 months by axing 600 jobs companywide (together with quite a few advert and enterprise jobs below Podsights and Chartable). Excessive-profile executives similar to content material chief Daybreak Ostroff (who steered Spotify’s podcast operations) have left. Distinguished names, together with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Greater Floor Productions, Brené Brown, and Esther Perel, have exited offers with the platform. Jemele Hill hasn’t left but however is weighing other options. 

As Bloomberg reported final week, neither Parcast nor Gimlet had acquired annual budgets, in order that they hadn’t been capable of greenlight new exhibits or approve journey bills. It was solely this week that we came upon Spotify’s reasoning for this: each Gimlet and Parcast will probably be mixed to kind a brand new Spotify Originals studio centered on unique productions, which can embrace producing exhibits like Stolen, The Journal, Science Vs, Heavyweight, Serial Killers, and Conspiracy Theories. 

One other Gimlet worker who was laid off famous that manufacturing workers — producers, reporters, and engineers — appear to be most closely hit by the job cuts. 

Each nonfiction and fiction exhibits have been impacted. Spotify spokesperson Gray Munford confirmed that Case 63, which dropped its first season final fall, will probably be persevering with. The present is produced by Gimlet together with Julianne Moore and Oscar Issac’s manufacturing firms, FortySixty and Mad Gene Media. A lot of the Gimlet fiction staff behind Case 63, the chart-topping fiction podcast starring Moore and Issac, is now below Spotify’s head of improvement, Liz Gateley, in accordance with Munford.

So far as what Spotify needs the remaining chunk of Gimlet and Parcast to be doing, it seems to be alongside the strains of not getting in the best way because it embraces creators and third-party offers. The corporate spelled out clearly that the subsequent section of its podcast technique was to concentrate on creators and customers, together with the Spotify for Podcasters — the corporate’s advert and monetization platform. 

“We all know that creators have embraced the worldwide viewers on our platform however need improved discovery to assist them develop their viewers. We additionally know that they admire our instruments and creator help packages however need extra optionality and suppleness when it comes to monetization. Luckily, Spotify just isn’t an organization that ever sits nonetheless. Given these learnings and our management place, we lately launched into the subsequent section of our podcast technique, which is concentrated on delivering much more worth for creators (and customers!),” wrote Sahar Elhabashi, Spotify’s head of podcast enterprise.

The merging of Gimlet and Parcast appears to be an unnatural one, in accordance with quite a few former staff. Parcast, which Spotify acquired in 2019, focuses largely on true-crime podcasts, with exhibits like Prison Ardour and Prison {Couples}. Gimlet is thought for its lineup of audio journalism collection and interview podcasts, in addition to scripted audio dramas. Gimlet gained its first Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting earlier this 12 months for Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s by investigative journalist Connie Walker. A second season of Stolen has been greenlit. 

“I’m unsure what folding Parcast and Gimlet collectively in a single staff means. They’re very totally different kinds of manufacturing and improvement, in order that they want totally different sorts of help when it comes to advertising and marketing, PR, improvement, and different ability units,” mentioned one former Gimlet worker, who left previous to this week’s layoffs. 

Gimlet blew up largely as a result of its unique exhibits, which helped outline the podcast increase. Sequence like Reply All, The Nod, Heavyweight, and StartUp helped push the bar on what audio storytelling could possibly be, and each advertisers and buyers lined as much as get entangled. However below the management of Spotify, each Gimlet and Parcast struggled to find direction. Reply All got here to an inglorious end simply over a 12 months in the past, and Gimlet below Spotify hasn’t produced one other equal hit. 

The blame is a minimum of partly as a result of Spotify’s incapacity to completely perceive what it was shopping for for a combined total of roughly $300 million. Unifying Parcast and Gimlet was a great instance of that. 

“Our exhibits and content material are very totally different,” mentioned one Gimlet employee who was laid off yesterday. “The truth that Spotify is merging them so clumsily solely additional illustrates that they by no means actually understood or appreciated both of us totally.”

The hasty merger and axing of unique programming echo comparable techniques from the world of streaming video, similar to Warner Bros. Discovery’s choice to mix HBO Max and Discovery Plus’ choices into one streaming platform or Paramount’s choice to merge Showtime (which generates premium scripted collection like Yellowjackets) with Paramount Plus, which is residence to exhibits from CBS, BET, and TV Land — in addition to reside sports activities. 

Such choices replicate the fact of right this moment’s cash-strapped streaming surroundings. Very similar to how Netflix would as soon as go on shopping for sprees at Cannes and now makes actuality exhibits like Too Sizzling to Deal with, Spotify is transferring away from expensive originals and embracing novice podcasters and creator partnerships (to not point out its highest-value celeb audio offers, similar to that with Joe Rogan). In each instances, firms are trimming their unique programming in favor of content material that’s cheaper to provide and generates extra eyeballs and downloads. 

Much less prestigious content material gained’t make a distinction to advertisers, says Max Willens, a senior analyst at Insider Intelligence. “I might say that advertisers will welcome this choice within the sense that it could give them extra stock to promote towards, probably at a extra engaging value. The longform, extremely produced content material that Gimlet made its identify creating was costlier and took longer to provide, and infrequently commanded premium advert costs, which advertisers generally chafed at.”

However for individuals who work within the audio business, Spotify’s hasty exit from the world of podcasting and unique audio journalism aligns with the conduct they’ve grown to count on from the tech firm. 

“[The individuals laid off] are among the most gifted, skilled producers in the whole business,” mentioned a Gimlet staffer who left previous to this week’s layoffs. “It’s disappointing that Spotify by no means understood that — and how one can harness that creativity and expertise.”

SAG-AFTRA overwhelmingly voted in help of a strike in the event that they don’t attain a take care of the studios, union management introduced on Monday night time. Though SAG-AFTRA is thought historically as Hollywood’s actor union, its 160,000-strong membership consists of DJs, information anchors, voiceover artists — in addition to podcast hosts and audiobook narrators. 

The looming SAG-AFTRA strike is with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers (AMPTP) and would solely affect contracts bargained with them. Productions coated by SAG’s TV and theatrical contracts can be thought of off-limits. 

“Solely productions which are coated by the TV/Theatrical Codified Fundamental Settlement and Tv Settlement can be struck in […in the event of a strike]. Scripted dramatic reside motion leisure manufacturing that’s coated by the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Contracts can be thought of struck work,” wrote SAG-AFTRA’s chief communications officer Pamela Greenwalt in an e-mail.

In different phrases, most podcast and audiobook contracts below SAG-AFTRA wouldn’t be thought of “struck” work. That is in distinction to the continued WGA strike, the place writing on scripted, fiction podcasts coated by WGA isn’t kosher and putting members usually are not allowed to work on non-union projects. 

“So whereas work by any member (celeb or in any other case) below SAG-AFTRA’s Audiobook Contracts would NOT be coated by a TV/Theatrical strike, all members will honor that motion within the areas of labor which are impacted ought to a strike must be known as,” clarified Greenwalt.

Which implies that for performers trying to work throughout a Hollywood strike, the audio world might turn out to be their go-to vacation spot. Celeb audio dramas have definitely turn out to be in vogue recently, with the likes of Demi Moore, Chris Pine, Rami Malek, Matthew McConaughey, and others contributing their voice skills to fiction podcasts. Audible has showcased quite a few celebrity-narrated audiobooks by Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, Thandiwe Newton, and others. 

It’s nonetheless unsure whether or not SAG-AFTRA will even name a strike. The union is scheduled to start out contract negotiations with AMPTP on June seventh. Within the occasion that they’re unable to succeed in a take care of the studios, SAG-AFTRA can then take steps to go on strike.