Their decision to make most of Gimlet's and Parcast's shows Spotify exclusive caused a steep drop in listeners - as high as three quarters of its audience for some shows." Dr. “But decisions Spotify leadership made directly contributed to those low numbers.
“Yesterday Spotify told show teams that their podcasts were being canceled because of low numbers,” tweeted the Gimlet Union. Why did this happen? There were likely many factors involved, but it seems clear that Spotify’s strategy of locking its IP exclusively behind its walled garden played a large role. Whatever magic Blumberg managed to capture in those first few years had clearly dissipated. It wasn’t the first sign that the merger had struggled to bear fruit - there were a number of staff departures and public squabbles leading up to it - but it was certainly the most unambiguous. I also wasn’t alone in feeling some sadness when I read last week that Spotify was canceling several Gimlet shows and laying off a sizable portion of its staff. Blumberg’s likeability and vulnerability endeared his listeners to his plight, and I wasn’t alone in cheering on the company’s triumphant $230 million sale to Spotify in 2019. The show was a veritable hit, especially after This American Life excerpted an episode on its own podcast feed. Over the course of several seasons, Startup documented Blumberg’s bumbling efforts to raise money, hire staff, distribute equity, launch shows, and transform Gimlet into a viable business.
A former public radio producer, Blumberg decided to leverage the storytelling skills he’d built up working on hit shows like This American Life and Planet Money to tell his own entrepreneurial story he did this through an appropriately-named podcast called Startup.
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