Michelle Obama Podcast: Spotify do it again — this time it’s the First Lady that has gone exclusive!
Following on from her hugely popular book ‘Becoming’ and recent Netflix TV series of the same name, Michelle Obama has become (no-pun intended) one of the most influential public figures on the planet and her domination across various media and mediums has been seriously impressive.
The Obama’s production company Higher Ground penned an exclusivity deal with Spotify last year and the upcoming ‘Michelle Obama Podcast’ (pretty much the best SEO name for that show possible!) is going to be the first project of the ongoing partnership.
The Obamas formed Higher Ground to produce powerful stories to entertain, inform, inspire which was evident from the recent TV series (if you haven’t seen it yet, check it out — great watch!) and the podcast is set to be a similar mix of inspiration and motivation with Michelle acting as host for each show with a variety of featured guests… including her Mum and brother.
This is the latest — in what seems to be a weekly occurrence — of big announcements from Spotify, who have made it no secret that they’re aiming to dominate the podcasting space with recent content and IP acquisitions of shows from Joe Rogan, Kim kardashian and even DC Comics.
Now, of course, anything the Obama’s do is going to generate headlines, but this podcast launch (which goes live on 29th July) is interesting for the podcasting world and the wider content creation community not just because of the big name behind the mic.
Whilst the likes of Joe Rogan have a big existing podcast audience that Spotify can hope to relocate to their platform, Mrs Obama (I feel like I can’t call her Michelle too often!) doesn’t have any existing experience in the space (don’t get me wrong, she’ll smash it as she’s bloody brilliant at everything she does from what I can see) so you have to assume that the deal is based on her overall profile, audience and reach. Which makes sense, as her profile is massive, in every corner of the earth.
For me though, this deal says — yet again — that the new world we are living in means that if you create amazing content and build an engaged audience, you can — to a certain extent — determine you’re own value. Yes, of course, that perceived value will be based on basic metrics, but there is that layer of control that content creators now have, which has never existed before.
You do you — make the content you want to make — for the audience you love — grow that audience — turn it into a tribe — make your own culture around that tribe and then you are in the driving seat.
Gone are the days of needing the likes of the BBC to give your talent the nod and put you on the airwaves; digital platforms such as Spotify for audio makers, YouTube for video creators, Medium for writers etc. mean that the creator is in control now like never before.
These are exciting times we are living in!
And, if you’ve been seeing all the recent Spotify announcements and wondered what that has been doing to the streaming giant marketshare, here are some stats:
Spotify has 286 million users with 124 Million premium subscribers. And from a podcasting perspective, Spotify now enjoys 41% ‘share of voice’ which has increased hugely from 23 percent just last year. Needless to say, Spotify’s acquisition model is making a pretty massive impact.
