Spotify: One of the great podcast leaders leaves the ship

Courtney Holt, head of podcasts at Spotify, is leaving the company in a rather platform-specific context.

Spotify is more than just a music streaming service. In recent years, the platform in particular has signed some very interesting agreements for popular podcasts with the aim of becoming a major player in the podcast market. Among the executives who helped bring it all to life was Courtney Holt. Among other things, thanks to him, the platform was able to attract the couple of Obama, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as well as the highly controversial Joe Rogan. Today, Courtney Holt is leaving the company after nearly five years on the job.

Courtney Holt, head of podcasting at Spotify, is leaving the company

As such, Courtney Holt will leave her post in the coming weeks, but will retain her consultant role at Spotify for a year. The platform has decided to redistribute its work and team between Max Cutler, current director of New Content Initiatives, and Julie McNamara, director of US Studios. According to The Ankler, Courtney Holt’s departure comes shortly after Lydia Polgreen stepped down as CEO of Gimlet, one of the podcast studios Spotify acquired in 2019 along with Anchor and Parcast. Courtney Holt also helped Spotify sign these agreements.

The man did not explain why he was leaving his post, limiting himself to posting a thank you message to the platform on Twitter:

in a fairly platform-specific context

There seems to be some internal confusion that mass podcast acquisitions are not delivering the results and audiences that Spotify expects. If you want an example of the scale of the company’s acquisitions, its deal with Joe Rogan was reportedly worth at least $200 million. The Joe Rogan Experience isn’t among the less-anticipated Spotify podcasts, but it shows that the company wasn’t necessarily prepared to deal with the challenges that can come with creating original content.

Joe Rogan and Spotify came under fire a few months ago after the host brought in Dr. Robert Malone, known for spreading unsubstantiated claims about Covid-19 and its vaccines. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek also apologized to the company’s employees after learning that Joe Rogan used racist language in some episodes that were removed from the platform. Daniel Ek, however, chose not to remove episodes containing any misinformation, stating that their retention would encourage “critical thinking and open debate”.