Spotify Is in Talks to Buy Gimlet

I really really don’t want this deal to happen. Gimlet was the company that got me into podcasts a few years back, and I loved their first few shows. StartUp, Reply All, etc... have all been favorites, though Reply All and Homecoming are the only two I listen to now I think. It was great watching them turn Homecoming into an Amazon drama (though it was awful watching StartUp turn into Alex Inc).

I think what bothers me the most is I see Spotify trying to turn themselves into a podcast platform with podcasts that are limited to just Spotify, and that’s not what podcasting is about at all. Once you try to make it all “exclusive” to one app or whatever, it loses the appeal. To clarify, I’m totally fine with podcasts that do exclusive episodes for Patreon backers and such, but I’m not cool with things like delayed releases where Spotify would get new episodes before any other platform like Apple Podcasts or Overcast.

I’ll keep my mind open till I see what the terms of the deal are for now, but the moment Spotify tries to make Gimlet’s content exclusive, I’ll be moving on for good.

 

I agree with basically all of this. Not too excited for Spotify to move more into podcasting.

 

Will be bummed if I lose all my Gimlet shows to Spotify. Not intending to leave Overcast or Apple Music anytime all.

 

Woah, interesting move. Cool for Alex and Nazanin, but yeah agreed with the concerns about Spotify putting their fingers in the podcasting pot. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Related... if we’re talking Gimlet shows, y’all best not be sleeping on the best one, Heavyweight

 

My personal opinion is that podcasting is best when it's open and not tied behind walls or to one company. What ruined the web, in many ways, was two companies having outsized portions of the advertising portion of it, and I worry about that happening to podcasting.

 

I like Heavyweight, but it’s a show where I know within the first five minutes whether I’m going to enjoy an episode or not. It’s a hit-or-miss show for me.

 

Heavyweight is a solid show, not my favorite though.

Reply All, Mogul, and Uncivil would likely be my top 3.

 

Spotify has been ruining the user experience of their apps already by hamfisting Podcasts down your throat with very poor Podcast management tools. This only going to make this experience worse. Every other or third carousel in the Spotify app is worthless Podcast recommendations.

Podcast listening is a very personal experience, akin to reading a book. It's a time commitment and its not like recommending a song or even a tv show to someone where they can get through in a few minutes. And people are loyal to the ones they listen to, it's hard to just jump right into new ones, because so much of a podcast is dependent on the chemistry between hosts. There's a reason that in all the years of podcasts, recommendation engines have never really taken off, there's more nuance to it.

I've tried listening to Podcasts within Spotify - I'm not even opposed to streaming services integrating Podcasts, but I don't need 15 different podcast shows recommended to me on home feed every day.

I've subscribed to a couple podcasts within Spotify to see how it works and they can't even get notifications of new releases of the shows you WANT to listen to right. Best I can see, is all they have is a carousel of "Your Top Podcasts".

It's a pretty worthless integration and if they swoop up all our favorite podcast producers and make them exclusives or put them behind release windows, it just makes the experience for everyone, regardless of player, that much worse.

 

Seems like consolidation is an unstoppable force in the world, for better or (usually) worse.

 

Welp.