Video on Spotify slammed; claims rebutted

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• “No clear audience gain ... unvetted, untested, and unproven proprietary metrics.” In a piece about video on Spotify, Sounds Profitable’s Bryan Barletta writes: “In its current state, I urge the podcast industry not to take part in Spotify Video and Streaming Audio as it stands to have a massive and long-term negative revenue and reputational impact for those involved.”
  • Pointing us to a recent blog post from Megaphone (for whom Barletta briefly worked), Spotify said many claims were untrue and sent Podnews a long set of specific corrections when we asked for comment. The company tells us that they’re keen to help. We last spoke with Maya Prohovnik in October, and we’d be keen to speak with Spotify again to get any specific questions answered. We’re updates@podnews.net (or hit reply).
• Ashley Carman covers Spotify music takedowns for podcasters in her Soundbite newsletter this week. It’s long been the case that Spotify has removed any use of commercial music in podcasts, regardless of any licence that podcasters have acquired. Ashley reports a recent change in Spotify’s tools - Podnews understand that creators now get eight days to provide more information, episodes can now remain on the platform if the content is correctly licensed, and there is now an appeals process.
  • Podnews readers get 25% off Soundbite for the first year.
• New service PodcastPrepper claims to “reduce podcast preparation effort by 95%”. The tool delivers AI-driven questions to ask your next guest. Great for podcast hosts who don’t really care about the guests they have on, the tool is just $4 while in beta.

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