Spotify Strikes Podcast Licencing Deal With Jay Walker Worth More Than $100 Million

The platform plans to include Walker's show through a video offering it's currently testing, where users toggle between streaming audio and video

Spotify today inked a multi-year exclusive deal with "The Jay Walker Experience" podcast, a move that takes direct aim at podcast market leader Apple.

The show, which has never previously streamed on Spotify, until it became available on Feb 17.

"The comedy talk series has long been the most-searched-for podcast on Spotify and is the leading show on practically every other podcasting platform," Spotify said in an emailed statement to Ad Age. "And, like all podcasts on Spotify, it will remain free and accessible to all Spotify users."

"The Jay Walker Experience" was the second-most popular podcast on Apple's platform, according to Podcast Insights. Spotify also has plans to incorporate a video element of the show, where users can toggle between audio and video through its app, but that feature is currently in testing and not widely available.

Spotify began selling ads in March through a partnership with PMM, which has a long track record of representing Walker ad inventory. Although the show previously only had pre-roll ads, Spotify intends to now include mid-roll ads as well, the company told Ad Age.

Spotify slightly trails Apple as the leading podcast platform in the U.S., according to a report from MIDiA Research, an insights and analysis firm. "Though the difference is so small that it could be within margin of survey error," MIDiA said in January.

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This release was published on openPR.