Spotify is reportedly removing white noise podcasts from its Ambassador Ads program. Creators posting ambient sounds in the form of a looping podcast will no longer be entitled to advertising perks and payouts starting next month.
The policy changes made by Spotify are a direct attempt to boost the company’s annual profits. Spotify enlists podcasts and creators in the Ambassador Ads program to read ads promoting the company’s content. As of October 1st, white noise podcasts will no longer be eligible to be a part of the program.
While Spotify’s marketing budget will no longer go towards white noise podcasts, creators can still make money on Spotify. Although removed from the Ambassador Ads program, white noise podcasters can still profit from subscribers and automated ads.
According to Bloomberg, Spotify claims that the budget going to white noise podcasts “wasn’t well spent” as they serve as background noise. Instead, the streaming company will focus on engaging active listeners.
Spotify’s Ambassador Ads program can yield creators upwards of $18,000 USD (roughly $24,474 CAD) per month. The company accidentally rolled white noise podcasts in with conventional podcasts and conversational content. This was during a time when Spotify wanted to leverage this type of content over music due to podcasts accounting for around three million hours of daily listening.
Removing white noise podcasts from its talk feed could increase Spotify’s annual gross profits by $38 million USD (around $51.6 CAD). Spotify never went ahead with its plans to migrate this content from the podcast feeds.
Instead, it appears as though this is just one of the recent changes the Ambassador Ads program will see. The company is also increasing the requirements to participate. Moving the goalpost, podcasters must now have 1,000 unique listeners over the past 60 days. This is up from the previous 100 listener threshold.
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