Spotify is sorry that it revealed how many people listen to your podcast
1 min read
Summary
Spotify decided to show the number of listens to specific podcast episodes, in the hope that listeners would use this metric to find new podcasts.
However, podcasters, particularly those with smaller followings, were unhappy with the move, arguing that knowing a podcast has few listeners may put off potential listeners.
Spotify has now reversed its decision and will only show general thresholds for the number of listens, such as ‘50k listens’, but will continue to show exact numbers via private analytics to podcasters.
The episode examines the difficulties of measuring podcast audiences, and the pressure on content creators to have large followings from the outset.
It concludes that, while this move by Spotify may have been poorly received, it at least provides some comic relief for smaller podcasters in an awkward growth stage.