Gustav Söderström

So we decided to go for it because we thought it was something that was in line with music. If you lose an hour in a deep podcast, you come out feeling like you learned something. And this is the reason we also went into books, because it's in line with that. We want to be this nutritious service. There are two litmus tests for this.

So we decided to go for it because we thought it was something that was in line with music. If you lose an hour in a deep podcast, you come out feeling like you learned something. And this is the reason we also went into books, because it's in line with that. We want to be this nutritious service. There are two litmus tests for this.

One is if you lose an hour on Spotify, how do you come out feeling versus if you lose an hour doom scrolling in the bathroom? How do you feel about that? In one case, you feel like you ate a lot of candy, like you had a lot of energy in you, but it's bad calories. In the case of Spotify, you feel like you learned something. The other litmus test that we have is see a lot of parents.

One is if you lose an hour on Spotify, how do you come out feeling versus if you lose an hour doom scrolling in the bathroom? How do you feel about that? In one case, you feel like you ate a lot of candy, like you had a lot of energy in you, but it's bad calories. In the case of Spotify, you feel like you learned something. The other litmus test that we have is see a lot of parents.

restricting screen time for their kids and saying, go to Spotify instead, which means that expresses how they feel about it and how we feel about it. So that was one of the reasons to go into podcast. It was part philosophical, but we also saw the market opportunity of a small market that was poised to grow. And we saw need in early adopters trying to hack it in.

restricting screen time for their kids and saying, go to Spotify instead, which means that expresses how they feel about it and how we feel about it. So that was one of the reasons to go into podcast. It was part philosophical, but we also saw the market opportunity of a small market that was poised to grow. And we saw need in early adopters trying to hack it in.

And then we did this bet on leveraging our own distribution, combining it with music, saying that The market is this big right now, but what if we could expose podcasts to people who listen to music? Could we grow the market? So that's the bet we did. And the truth is, audiobook is something similar. In the US, audiobooks was a very niche behavior.

And then we did this bet on leveraging our own distribution, combining it with music, saying that The market is this big right now, but what if we could expose podcasts to people who listen to music? Could we grow the market? So that's the bet we did. And the truth is, audiobook is something similar. In the US, audiobooks was a very niche behavior.

10, 11 million or something people who paid for them a la carte. And the idea was that's a limitation because of the business model. When you pay a la carte, you're not going to explore new books at $15 per book cost. Just as in music, when you pay $0.99 per song, you're not going to soundtrack your sleep. It's too expensive at $0.99 per three minutes.

10, 11 million or something people who paid for them a la carte. And the idea was that's a limitation because of the business model. When you pay a la carte, you're not going to explore new books at $15 per book cost. Just as in music, when you pay $0.99 per song, you're not going to soundtrack your sleep. It's too expensive at $0.99 per three minutes.

But what if we have no marginal cost model where you can just explore? Is audiobook much bigger than it looks? Is the business model that is wrong? So again, it was seeing a market that looked pretty small, but you can see in the Nordics where you have the access model that it's getting very mainstream. So a bet on the market, but it was the same philosophical discussion. Are these good calories?

But what if we have no marginal cost model where you can just explore? Is audiobook much bigger than it looks? Is the business model that is wrong? So again, it was seeing a market that looked pretty small, but you can see in the Nordics where you have the access model that it's getting very mainstream. So a bet on the market, but it was the same philosophical discussion. Are these good calories?

Is this nutritious? Is this in line with Spotify's mission of being the place where you go when you want to feel good about yourself instead of when you want to feel bad about yourself.

Is this nutritious? Is this in line with Spotify's mission of being the place where you go when you want to feel good about yourself instead of when you want to feel bad about yourself.

I remember the very first time I ever talked to Daniel walking along the West Side Highway here many years ago, he talked about this notion of Spotify needing to be better than free. It was a cool idea. If you think about podcasting, it's very different than music. When someone listens to this show on Spotify, you don't owe me anything.

I remember the very first time I ever talked to Daniel walking along the West Side Highway here many years ago, he talked about this notion of Spotify needing to be better than free. It was a cool idea. If you think about podcasting, it's very different than music. When someone listens to this show on Spotify, you don't owe me anything.

How do you think about the way that podcasting and then obviously books is a little bit maybe more like music and I'd like to hear how you think about it. How do you think about if that's the supply of the stuff that people are listening to on Spotify or watching on Spotify, the ways in which that affects your business model and the bundle?

How do you think about the way that podcasting and then obviously books is a little bit maybe more like music and I'd like to hear how you think about it. How do you think about if that's the supply of the stuff that people are listening to on Spotify or watching on Spotify, the ways in which that affects your business model and the bundle?

We didn't know before we started if podcasting and later audiobooks would be cannibalistic to the other media types or not. But it turns out it's not. So the easiest model to think about it is Spotify is a bundle now. You pay some price or you have the advertising based here and you get a bunch of value. And our job is to try to increase the value you get so you value it more.

We didn't know before we started if podcasting and later audiobooks would be cannibalistic to the other media types or not. But it turns out it's not. So the easiest model to think about it is Spotify is a bundle now. You pay some price or you have the advertising based here and you get a bunch of value. And our job is to try to increase the value you get so you value it more.