I know this is old news by now but @Spotify's reason for heavily investing in podcasts has been completely overlooked.

Most think that Spotify is heavily investing in podcasts because by securing rights to popular podcasters, it will help them gain market share from @AppleMusic.

However this being the primary reasoning isn't accurate. The true reason is much more strategic.

When Spotify subscribers listen to music, Spotify loses money because they pay artists about $0.007 per user play.

That means that Spotify profits by having their users NOT listen to music.

For that reason, signing @joerogan podcast was a no brainer. His podcast is 3 hours long, 3 times per week.

That's 9 hours per week where millions of Spotify subscribers will NOT be listening to music.

Now let's do the math on the savings...

9 hours is 540 minutes
540 minutes equates to roughly 180, 3-minute song plays
180 songs X $0.007 cost per song is $1.26

So in theory, for each Joe Rogan podcast listener, Shopify saves $1.26 per person, per week!

When you multiply that savings by millions of Joe Rogan podcast subscribers, you get way more than the $100 Million per year that Spotify is paying him.

And that is the true reason why @spotifypodcasts is so beneficial to their business model.