**Breathe in…**While many people turn to ambient music to unwind, "white noise" is becoming a source of tension for Spotify, as podcasts that play relaxing sounds are costing the company millions every year.
According to an internal document, as reported by Bloomberg, Spotify has been looking to remove white noise and other ambient content, in an effort to turn audiences towards shows that are more lucrative for the platform.
Accounting for ~3 million listening hours on Spotify every day, white noise podcasts deliver aural tranquillity through a variety of soothing sounds. Listeners tune in to falling rain, tropical birds, radio static, or even the whirs of fans and airplanes — and the popularity of the genre only seems to be growing. Data from Google reveals that YouTube searches for "sleep music", "rain sounds" and "white noise" have surged in recent years. This has meant that ad revenue for podcasters in the burgeoning field is at its zen-ith, with creators raking in as much as $18,000 per month, simply for looping the same pacifying noises on repeat.
Breathe out...
In 2019, Spotify acquired Anchor, the podcast creation app, in a bid to encourage users to host their own shows. Since then, creators have swarmed to the service, with 44% of the 4m+ podcasts listed in the Podcast Index, hosted on Anchor.
However, Spotify’s push towards ‘talk’-based content unintentionally advanced the listenership of white noise and ambient podcasts. As pressure to improve the streaming service’s profitability mounts, with the price of its premium service increasing last month, banning white noise podcasts was considered, with the company estimating it would have boosted profits by nearly $40m. Much to meditate on.
