Joe Budden is taking his podcast off Spotify because the company ‘is pillaging’ his audience
Broadly, he questions the entire podcasting system and what a podcast stream is worth, especially given that musicians and record labels have already established those terms with streaming platforms. That number, for podcasters, still isn’t standardized.
Budden isn’t the first Spotify-associated podcaster to speak up about the industry. The hosts of
The Nod, which became a Spotify-owned show after the company acquired Gimlet Media,
spoke out in June about their issues with show ownership. Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings say they built their show and audience but owned none of it.
“At the end of the day, investing in someone’s talent isn’t the same as having the talent yourself,” Luse told
The Verge. “It’s very strange that [Spotify and Gimlet] are the only people who can claim ownership over [
The Nod and its segments].”
Spotify has made headlines in the industry by signing big names, like Kim Kardashian West, Joe Rogan, and Michelle Obama, to exclusive shows. The terms of all those deals are unclear, but at least part of the strategy is for Spotify to sell ads against those shows, netting it additional revenue. (The company includes ads on podcasts, even if premium subscribers are listening.)
It needs big shows to sell big ad deals.
Podcasting has clearly become a potentially massive money-maker, but some hosts want more ownership and payment. Budden doesn’t clarify if he’s entertaining other exclusive offers, and whether he thinks that’s the future of podcasting. He paved the way for the exclusive model and is seemingly abandoning it, at least for now.
