Here’s How Spotify’s Algorithm Made White Noise a $38 Million Market

The giant of music streaming wants to tackle a phenomenon that costs him a lot of money every year.

Spotify is 100% invested in the world of podcasting. The service has spent millions of dollars to build a comprehensive platform from scratch and attract talent to its stable.

Looping relaxing noises that take the place of podcasts

The Swedish company has paved the way for thousands of professional and independent publishers to allow them to express themselves through numerous programs available on its various applications. Spotify is today one of the most important platforms for listening to podcasts, and clever little guys have understood the financial interest they could draw from it.

For some time now, podcasts have been springing up on the service whose broadcasts consist only of “white noise” such as the relaxing sounds of waves crashing on the beach or the sound of the wind on the plains.

If it seems legitimate to think that these programs are shunned by users in search of information and content, they are nevertheless very listened to by Spotify members. The fault lies with the suggestions made by the service’s algorithms, which tend to easily push this content to users who are more interested in podcasts than online music.

Spotify estimates at 3 million the number of daily listens to these different programs on its platform, according to a study carried out in January 2023.

The service will review its algorithms to reduce the number of recommendations and plays

These programs, which may be of interest to some listeners, are nevertheless very expensive for Spotify. $38 million every year to be exact. Indeed, like all programs available on its platform, Spotify places advertisements at the start of the program, especially for free users who are not subscribed to the Spotify Premium plan. Some publishers of these podcasts can generate nearly $18,000 per month from these ads.

Faced with inflation, and after having had to cut its workforce in recent months and slow down its investments in the world of podcasting, Spotify now wants to put the kibosh on “white noise” podcasts and save a few million dollars.

The streaming service should soon ban the upload of new similar programs, but also modify its recommendation algorithms to reduce the number of plays and proposals made to listeners. This content will also be removed from the Talk category, again to reduce its dissemination through suggestions.

But Spotify could go even further. If the company confirms that podcasts made up of white noise are expected to remain on the service, some publishers have nevertheless noted the sudden disappearance of some of their content.

Source : The Verge