Spotify’s podcast division hosts 4 million podcasts but is not profitable

Spotify hosts more than 4 million podcasts on its platform, about a thousand of which can be listened to exclusively via the music platform. This was communicated by the top of the company to its shareholders. However, the company’s podcast division is not yet profitable.

The Spotify board announced the news during the Investor Day event. There, the board informed the shareholders about the company’s financial forecasts. That board stated that Spotify operates in 183 markets today and is on track to have about 1 billion users by 2030. It is not clear how many of these will be paying users. End of 2021 Spotify had 180 million paying users and more than 400 million total users.

The company also went into Spotify’s podcast division. It is not yet profitable according to CEO Daniel Ek. The man states that this division is still in “investment mode”. Spotify executive Maya Prohovnkik said separating podcasts from RSS feeds has created more profit opportunities for the company. She went on to call RSS “an obsolete technology”. The company expects its long-term podcast revenue goals to be met thanks to new developments in the podcast advertising market, an increasing number of podcast subscribers and the provision of paid tools for podcast creators.

Spotify also talked about plans it has for audiobooks. Spotify stated that it sees potential in this market. In December of last year, the company acquired Findaway, an audiobook platform with approximately 325,000 audio titles. Then it became clear that Spotify wants to offer an audiobook catalog.

Spotify Investor Day 2022