The CEO of Spotify details his bet on video podcasts to compete with YouTube.
I am sure that the partners will be surprised to see the payment numbers they will receive.
This week, I watched the presentation given by Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, aimed at video podcasters, many of whom see YouTube as their primary platform for distribution and revenue generation. For nearly a decade, Spotify has been working to increase the amount of video available on its service. Currently, the platform has over 300,000 video podcasts. The total time spent watching video content is growing at a faster pace than that of audio-only listening.
With video podcasts taking on an increasingly relevant role in culture, Spotify believes it has an opportunity to compete more directly with YouTube's dominance. To achieve this, Ek will need to convince content creators that the new engagement-based payments from the platform can match or even surpass their earnings on YouTube. Many prominent podcasters, who were in the audience during Ek's presentation at Spotify's headquarters in Los Angeles, are skeptical and concerned about the potential cannibalization of their current audiences and businesses.
After his talk, I had the opportunity to converse with Ek to delve deeper into why he believes this strategy for video will be successful.
