Spotify Launches Three New Original Podcasts

Music streaming service Spotify is adding some more original content to its catalog — but this time around, it’s not about video: Spotify announced the launch of three new original podcasts Thursday, which all focus on various aspects of music and their makers.

On Thursday, the company premiered “Showstopper,” a new biweekly podcast that focuses on music in TV shows, and is hosted by The Fader editor in chief Naomi Zeichner. Season one of the podcast will feature interviews with music supervisors from shows like “Girls,” “Stranger Things,” “Being Mary Jane” and more.

By mid-March, Spotify will premiere its “Unpacked” podcast, which will feature daily interview with musicians, filmmakers and other artists. The show will debut at SXSW, and focus on other festivals going forward. And in April, hip hop attorney Reggie Ossé aka Combat Jack will retrace the life of late music industry executive Chris Lighty, who represented artists like L.L. Cool J, Missy Elliott and 50 Cent.

These three shows represent Spotify’s most ambitious foray into podcasting yet, but the company has produced original podcasts before. Last year, it produced a campaign dubbed “Clarify” that urged young people to participate in the election and also included a podcasting component.

And in Germany, Spotify has been producing a weekly podcast titled “Fest & Flauschig,” which is being hosted by local comedians Jan Böhmermann and Olli Schulz and reportedly has an audience of multiple hundreds of thousands of listeners every week.

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