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When Spotify introduced yesterday that it will lay off 200 workers from its podcast unit and mix Gimlet and Parcast right into a single operation, it got here as a shock to exterior observers. However former and present podcast workers at Spotify have seen the writing on the wall for a while.
“We positively have anticipated for a number of months now that they’d be axing individuals because the vibe at Gimlet had been very a lot one in every of strolling on eggshells for months now,” one former Gimlet worker who was part of yesterday’s layoffs instructed Sizzling Pod. “Zero pleasure. [The layoffs] have been extra only a matter of when. The truth that it was yesterday, that was the shock.”
“Zero pleasure. [The layoffs] have been extra only a matter of when.”
It’s been greater than a yr since Spotify first eliminated its namesake podcast manufacturing unit. Final fall, Spotify laid off dozens of Gimlet and Parcast employees and pulled 11 authentic reveals from manufacturing. It started this yr by axing 600 jobs companywide (together with quite a few advert and enterprise jobs beneath Podsights and Chartable). Excessive-profile executives akin to content material chief Daybreak Ostroff (who steered Spotify’s podcast operations) have left. Outstanding names, together with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Greater Floor Productions, Brené Brown, and Esther Perel, have exited offers with the platform. Jemele Hill hasn’t left but however is weighing other options.
As Bloomberg reported final week, neither Parcast nor Gimlet had acquired annual budgets, in order that they hadn’t been capable of greenlight new reveals or approve journey bills. It was solely this week that we came upon Spotify’s reasoning for this: each Gimlet and Parcast will likely be mixed to kind a brand new Spotify Originals studio centered on authentic productions, which can embrace producing reveals like Stolen, The Journal, Science Vs, Heavyweight, Serial Killers, and Conspiracy Theories.
One other Gimlet worker who was laid off famous that manufacturing workers — producers, reporters, and engineers — appear to be most closely hit by the job cuts.
Each nonfiction and fiction reveals have been impacted. Spotify spokesperson Gray Munford confirmed that Case 63, which dropped its first season final fall, will likely be persevering with. The present is produced by Gimlet together with Julianne Moore and Oscar Issac’s manufacturing corporations, FortySixty and Mad Gene Media. A lot of the Gimlet fiction crew behind Case 63, the chart-topping fiction podcast starring Moore and Issac, is now beneath Spotify’s head of improvement, Liz Gateley, in line with Munford.
So far as what Spotify needs the remaining chunk of Gimlet and Parcast to be doing, it seems to be alongside the strains of not getting in the way in which because it embraces creators and third-party offers. The corporate spelled out clearly that the subsequent section of its podcast technique was to give attention to creators and customers, together with the Spotify for Podcasters — the corporate’s advert and monetization platform.
“We all know that creators have embraced the worldwide viewers on our platform however need improved discovery to assist them develop their viewers. We additionally know that they respect our instruments and creator help applications however need extra optionality and suppleness by way of monetization. Luckily, Spotify is just not an organization that ever sits nonetheless. Given these learnings and our management place, we not too long ago launched into the subsequent section of our podcast technique, which is concentrated on delivering much more worth for creators (and customers!),” wrote Sahar Elhabashi, Spotify’s head of podcast enterprise.
“They’re very completely different types of manufacturing and improvement.”
The merging of Gimlet and Parcast appears to be an unnatural one, in line with quite a few former workers. Parcast, which Spotify acquired in 2019, focuses largely on true-crime podcasts, with reveals like Legal Ardour and Legal {Couples}. Gimlet is understood for its lineup of audio journalism sequence and interview podcasts, in addition to scripted audio dramas. Gimlet received its first Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting earlier this yr for Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s by investigative journalist Connie Walker. A second season of Stolen has been greenlit.
“I’m undecided what folding Parcast and Gimlet collectively in a single crew means. They’re very completely different types of manufacturing and improvement, in order that they want completely different sorts of help by way of advertising, PR, improvement, and different ability units,” mentioned one former Gimlet worker, who left previous to this week’s layoffs.
Gimlet blew up largely as a result of its authentic reveals, which helped outline the podcast growth. Sequence like Reply All, The Nod, Heavyweight, and StartUp helped push the bar on what audio storytelling may very well be, and each advertisers and traders lined as much as become involved. However beneath the management of Spotify, each Gimlet and Parcast struggled to find direction. Reply All got here to an inglorious end simply over a yr in the past, and Gimlet beneath Spotify hasn’t produced one other equal hit.
The blame is at the least partly as a result of Spotify’s incapacity to totally perceive what it was shopping for for a combined total of roughly $300 million. Unifying Parcast and Gimlet was a very good instance of that.
“Our reveals and content material are very completely different,” mentioned one Gimlet employee who was laid off yesterday. “The truth that Spotify is merging them so clumsily solely additional illustrates that they by no means actually understood or appreciated both of us totally.”
The hasty merger and axing of authentic programming echo related ways from the world of streaming video, akin to Warner Bros. Discovery’s resolution to mix HBO Max and Discovery Plus’ choices into one streaming platform or Paramount’s resolution to merge Showtime (which generates premium scripted sequence like Yellowjackets) with Paramount Plus, which is dwelling to reveals from CBS, BET, and TV Land — in addition to dwell sports activities.
Such selections replicate the truth of immediately’s cash-strapped streaming setting. Very like how Netflix would as soon as go on shopping for sprees at Cannes and now makes actuality reveals like Too Sizzling to Deal with, Spotify is transferring away from dear originals and embracing newbie podcasters and creator partnerships (to not point out its highest-value celeb audio offers, akin to that with Joe Rogan). In each {cases}, corporations are trimming their authentic programming in favor of content material that’s cheaper to supply and generates extra eyeballs and downloads.
Much less prestigious content material received’t make a distinction to advertisers, says Max Willens, a senior analyst at Insider Intelligence. “I might say that advertisers will welcome this resolution within the sense that it could give them extra stock to promote in opposition to, presumably at a extra engaging value. The longform, extremely produced content material that Gimlet made its identify creating was costlier and took longer to supply, and infrequently commanded premium advert costs, which advertisers generally chafed at.”
However for individuals who work within the audio business, Spotify’s hasty exit from the world of podcasting and authentic audio journalism aligns with the habits they’ve grown to anticipate from the tech firm.
“[The individuals laid off] are a number of the most proficient, skilled producers in your entire business,” mentioned a Gimlet staffer who left previous to this week’s layoffs. “It’s disappointing that Spotify by no means understood that — and how you can harness that creativity and expertise.”
Audiobooks and podcasts could change into a haven within the occasion of a SAG strike
SAG-AFTRA overwhelmingly voted in help of a strike in the event that they don’t attain a cope with the studios, union management introduced on Monday evening. Though SAG-AFTRA is understood historically as Hollywood’s actor union, its 160,000-strong membership contains DJs, information anchors, voiceover artists — in addition to podcast hosts and audiobook narrators.
The looming SAG-AFTRA strike is with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers (AMPTP) and would solely impression contracts bargained with them. Productions lined by SAG’s TV and theatrical contracts can be thought-about off-limits.
“Solely productions which can be lined by the TV/Theatrical Codified Primary Settlement and Tv Settlement can be struck in […in the event of a strike]. Scripted dramatic dwell motion leisure manufacturing that’s lined by the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Contracts can be thought-about struck work,” wrote SAG-AFTRA’s chief communications officer Pamela Greenwalt in an e-mail.
In different phrases, most podcast and audiobook contracts beneath SAG-AFTRA wouldn’t be thought-about “struck” work. That is in distinction to the continued WGA strike, the place writing on scripted, fiction podcasts lined by WGA isn’t kosher and placing members usually are not allowed to work on non-union projects.
“So whereas work by any member (celeb or in any other case) beneath SAG-AFTRA’s Audiobook Contracts would NOT be lined by a TV/Theatrical strike, all members will honor that motion within the areas of labor which can be impacted ought to a strike should be known as,” clarified Greenwalt.
Which signifies that for performers seeking to work throughout a Hollywood strike, the audio world could change into their go-to vacation spot. Superstar audio dramas have actually change into in vogue these days, with the likes of Demi Moore, Chris Pine, Rami Malek, Matthew McConaughey, and others contributing their voice abilities to fiction podcasts. Audible has showcased quite a few celebrity-narrated audiobooks by Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, Thandiwe Newton, and others.
It’s nonetheless unsure whether or not SAG-AFTRA will even name a strike. The union is scheduled to start out contract negotiations with AMPTP on June seventh. Within the occasion that they’re unable to achieve a cope with the studios, SAG-AFTRA can then take steps to go on strike.