This week in Spotify news…

Spotify on TV

Daniel Ek – Spotify’s founder – has announced changes to how Spotify looks on Smart TVs. I often use our Smart TV to listen to Spotify and it’s always been a bit user un-friendly – a poor relation to the mobile app. But all that is about to change. The menu is much more extensive, the recommendations are all there to spookily give you exactly the right tune at the right time, and you’ll be able to watch video podcasts on the full screen. It’s basically caught up with the mobile app in look and feel, with the advantage that your Smart TV has really good speakers.

Fan Study

Spotify has released their ‘fan study’ – an analysis of podcast listener behaviour and attitudes. Now being so dominant in the podcast market, Spotify’s research matters, and their data is huge. Insights include …

Word of mouth is still far more powerful than chart position in discovering new shows.

More podcast listening takes place on a weekday than weekends, with Tuesday being the biggest listening day (but only by a smidge).

There are distinct months when people are more open to discovering new podcasts: January, March, July and October. I’d never seen this before, but the difference between months is striking.

– Comedy and ‘leisure’ podcasts (including gaming and hobbies) are the most important categories for video. 44% of all video podcasts fall into these genres.

There’s one section of the study – hourly consumption by time of day and category – that puzzles me. It shows that ‘History’, ‘Health and Fitness’ and ‘Religion & Spirituality’ shows are listened to for longest during the hours of 1am and 3am. Firstly, length of listen doesn’t reflect the amount of listeners. (i.e a small proportion of your listeners may listen for longer at that time, but still account for a tiny fraction of overall hours) and surely this is because lots of them have fallen asleep and haven’t pressed stop? I’m open to other theories.


Related News

  • Fresh Air Falcons – Match Report

    EDITORIAL

    Fresh Air Falcons – Match Report

    LEEK CSOB FALCONS 0 LEEK CSOB TIGERS 4 The Fresh Air foray into the world of football continued to build on its disastrous start with the fifth defeat in a row. This week’s match was a local derby between the Falcons and arch rivals, Tigers. I’d like to say it was a game of two…

  • Content Wars

    EDITORIAL

    Content Wars

    I predict a riot. Ok. Well maybe not a riot . But a mini-revolution at the least. It feels like podcasting has reached a point where it’s now very definitely mainstream. Even my mum understands what it is, even if she hasn’t actually listened to one. And that’s a fairly decent indicator. But the danger…

  • The Six Things You Need To Grow A Podcast

    EDITORIAL

    The Six Things You Need To Grow A Podcast

    So, it’s been about three months since I started my new role here at Fresh Air. It’s been far too much fun for my liking and I’ve learnt plenty. Which makes it the perfect time to blog about it, because I love sharing. There’s a lazy tendency in marketing of – whack enough money into…