Swedish audio streaming giant Spotify has unveiled the Spotify Audience Network in India, a platform enabling podcast creators to monetize their content through advertising, aiming to cater to the surging listenership of podcasts in the country.
Brad Grealy, Spotify's head of ad sales, JAPAC, emphasized the burgeoning podcast landscape in India, noting it as one of the world's largest markets for podcast consumption. The Spotify Audience Network provides an avenue for brands to advertise within podcasts across various platforms, allowing content creators to expand their horizons and boost engagement.
Grealy highlighted the challenges podcast makers face in monetizing their content outside individual advertiser relationships. This initiative opens doors for both individual podcasters and larger organizations to benefit from advertising revenue, marking a significant shift in the monetization landscape for podcast content in India.
Audio Pitara and Ideabrew Studios are among the initial Indian publishers leveraging the Spotify Audience Network to monetize their content. The service's launch spans multiple countries, including Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan, aiming to support publishers with multiple podcasts seeking to harness advertising revenue.
Insights from Spotify's annual Wrapped campaign reveal the top-streamed podcasts in India for 2023, indicating Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, The Ranveer Show, Krishna- The Supreme Soul, and True Story Bro! With Triggered Insaan as the leading podcasts. These statistics reflect the popularity of genres such as religion and spirituality, education, society, and culture among Indian listeners.
Arjun Kolady, head of sales - India at Spotify, highlights the company's global advertising revenue growth in Q3, underlining the pivotal role podcasts played in this success. The move to enable local advertisers and publishers to tap into India's podcast market reflects Spotify's ongoing investments to bolster podcast and audio advertising globally.
Key Highlights
Spotify Audience Network is now available in India, allowing podcast creators to monetize their content through advertising.
The service has also been launched in Sweden, Brazil, Mexico and Japan.
Spotify plans to onboard different categories of advertisers and share revenue with podcast makers to enhance content quality.
Paid subscribers of Spotify will also be able to listen to these ads.
The first publishers in India that will leverage the Network to monetize content through advertisers, include Audio Pitara and Ideabrew Studios.
According to insights from its annual Wrapped campaign, the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita is the most-streamed podcast on Spotify in India in 2023.