Spotify is turning Los Angeles into podcast central with its new downtown studio.
Spotify’s new campus can accommodate as many as 600 employees from 18 podcast studios. It has a theater, an indoor stage, and places for musicians to work with vintage instruments. That includes a piano once used by Norah Jones.
“We want to be able to have the right home for our teams and for the creator community. That’s why we’re investing in L.A. It’s an important city for Spotify,” says Courtney Holt, Spotify’s Global Head of Podcasts and New Initiatives.
The campus features three buildings, including an office building, a building for the stage and conference rooms, and what Spotify is calling ‘Pod City.’
It’s where Spotify will record all of its Los Angeles-based podcasts. It also features a listening room with soundproofing and a cutting-edge sound system. That’s because podcasting gives Spotify a chance to own content it streams, rather than always licensing content from music rights holders.
Spotify has an estimated 28.2 million monthly U.S. podcast listeners. It is estimated to surpass Apple Podcasts’ monthly listeners by the end of 2021, according to eMarketer. While it may have started with music, podcasts will be what sets Spotify apart as more than just a music streaming service.
“This was a really great attempt to try and create the most forward-thinking and future-proof strategy around how we can do production that’s going to be dynamic and nimble to meet the needs of the platform and consumers,” says Holt.
Spotify is also dabbling in audio outside of just podcasts. It acquired and launched Spotify Greenroom earlier this year in March. It also acquired audiobooks business Findaway in November. Holt says her strategy for expanding Spotify is to view it as content-agnostic. “The company broadly continues to believe in and invest in the broader audio industry.”
Spotify’s diversification into podcasts, Greenroom and warmongery ( https://themusicessentials.com/news/daniel-ek-e100-million-investment/ ) is surely affecting its ability to keep up with its music streaming competitors. Its February 2021 promise to offer Spotify hifi by the end of 2021 has not materialised and it appears to be technologically sliding behind products offered by its competitors. Amazon, Apple, Deezer and Qobux all offer at least lossless music now.
Most glaring has been a total absence of information to its subscribers about this implementation and why it has been delayed or even cancelled. One can only think it is abusing the trust of its subscribers by maintaining silence; perhaps telling the truth would encourage a significant migration of those who want lossless to the products of its competitors.
Shame on you Spotify.