Spotify to Produce Original Podcasts

This week Spotify announced plans to launch their own original podcast production. 3 shows have been announced so far: Showstopper (on TV shows & music), Unpacked (exploring music festivals) and The Chris Lighty Story (chronicling the hip-hop music exec). Spotify has been building a podcast distribution library for the past year, but these new shows will be the first original podcasts to live on the app. RainNews notes that "Being a podcast producer is a more serious investment of resources than merely distributing, and is an indicator of how serious Spotify takes the threat of podcasting potentially eating into the company's share of ear." Read more on Spotify's foray into podcasting here.