As of Q4, we had 2.2 million podcasts on the platform (up from more than 1.9 million podcasts in Q3). Podcast performance benefited from strong underlying demand from advertisers with a 50% increase in the number of companies spending in this channel vs. The strength in Ad-Supported revenue was led by our Podcast, Direct, and Ad Studio channels, with Podcast and Ad Studio both growing over 100% on a Y/Y basis.
Total MAUs grew 27% Y/Y to 345 million in the quarter (.) Based on the behavior we see when users first join Spotify, we are confident that podcast usage has been a factor in the accelerated net additions. Will offer some data points from Spotify's Investor Relations that add some additional color to the anecdotes from previous comments: While you may listen to more music in the way you describe, I don't think it would invoke nearly the same level of connection that I feel now, personally I find that to be a bit bleak, and self-defeating in the long term. It can feel like a minor triumph when you discover a new album that just speaks to you in a style of music you have no grounding in, especially when it's recommended to you by someone you know or trust. Historically people like John Peel, and more recently Anthony Fantano (TheNeedleDrop) bring new music from underground artists in a wide range of genres to people's attention. More interestingly because music in general is an incredibly subjective experience, opinionated tastemakers can be crucial for exposing underground or breaking through artists to a larger audience. I think this damages the overall health of popular music in totality. This would come at the expense of artists who are not already in the public's sphere of consciousness, and would deeply hurt genres which have infinitely deep pools of sub-genres and micro-scenes the world of Heavy Metal comes to mind specifically here. I think that this would lead to further stagnancy or homogeneity in the most popular genres, as the playlist generation will look to optimize for the most listeners. I feel this limits the expression of the artists in general Artists will look to optimize for that particular method of consumption, in much the same way we have a large focus on individual track releases now in the streaming dominated world. If we all were to change to experiencing music like you describe it would inevitably result in a sea change in how the art is created in the first place. Some artists really put effort into developing their albums or EPs as a coherent expression. There's a couple of things I object to there, because personally I really enjoy exploring new music and the back catalogue of bands.
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