'Armchair Expert' podcast to become Spotify exclusive on July 1

The "Armchair Expert" podcast, hosted by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, will leave Apple Podcasts and become a Spotify exclusive in July.

All past and future episodes of "Armchair Expert" will be pulled from Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms starting July 1, Spotify announced Wednesday. The episodes, however, will "remain free and available."

"Armchair Expert" is one of the more popular podcasts on Apple's podcasting platform, currently sitting in 13th place on the Podcasts Top Charts. According to Forbes, the show likely has about 20 million monthly listeners.

This marks the second time that Spotify has nabbed an exclusive podcast deal with a popular show. Back in 2020, "The Joe Rogan Experience" also became a Spotify exclusive.

Apple in April announced a new subscription podcast service to keep up with Spotify. In March, a research firms suggested that Spotify may overtake Apple in spoken word content by the end of 2021.

On Monday, Apple secured an Apple Podcast Subscriptions deal with Amazon-owned Wondery.

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5 Comments

mrshow 162 comments · 22 Years

About 3 years ago

Sellouts. Never listened to it though, so meh.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

This is a followup to articles claiming Apple screwed up Podcasts so it fits the narrative. Otherwise it would not have been published. Let us know when the mass exodus from Podcasts has started because of Apple’s screwup.

Oh wait, this podcast has been removed from other podcast platforms too. So it’s not only Apple. Still fits the narrative though.

Beats 3073 comments · 4 Years

Exclusive podcasts are stupid. No one cares about podcasts until a few years ago. These new deals are weird.

lkrupp said:

This is a followup to articles claiming Apple screwed up Podcasts so it fits the narrative. Otherwise it would not have been published. Let us know when the mass exodus from Podcasts has started because of Apple’s screwup.

Oh wait, this podcast has been removed from other podcast platforms too. So it’s not only Apple. Still fits the narrative though.

Apple had a monopoly on Podcasts for about 15 years. So yeah they’re screwing up.

Apple is basically bending over for Spotify and saying “screw me!”

Apple should have protected their invention as soon as any company tried to enter the market.

mcdave 1927 comments · 19 Years

So Apple gets criticised for not opening the App Store (which was never meant to be open) but Spotify gets so close the podcast ecosystem.

cgWerks 2947 comments · 8 Years

mrshow said:

Sellouts. Never listened to it though, so meh.

Yes, and no. Spotify seems to have stupid-money to waste at this point, so if you're not too concerned for the future of your podcast and retaining your audience, why not take the money and run? But yeah, for podcast purists, this is kind of selling out. It's a dumb move from a podcast longevity standpoint, but again, if they offer you $millions, take the deal, change your life, and do whatever you want with the future.

lkrupp said:

This is a followup to articles claiming Apple screwed up Podcasts so it fits the narrative. Otherwise it would not have been published. Let us know when the mass exodus from Podcasts has started because of Apple’s screwup.

We'll have to wait and see the impact, but Apple did screw up kind of bad this time, so it is hard to say the impact it will have. For example, I think Marco switched Overcast from pointing at the Apple directory to pointing at Podcast Index.

Beats said:

Exclusive podcasts are stupid.

I agree, and technically they aren't podcast any longer. It's now a Spotify audio show.

Beats said:
Apple had a monopoly on Podcasts for about 15 years. So yeah they’re screwing up.
...
Apple should have protected their invention as soon as any company tried to enter the market.

Apple had a lot of control because they were the dominant directory thanks to iTunes directory and their player. But, they were never really in control of much of anything. It was a plus/minus, as their hand's off approach gave a lot of exposure and growth, but it also held back innovation, because no one knew how to get Apple to change and add to the RSS spec. Apple was too uninvolved for the latter to happen much.

But, they DID NOT invent podcasting (was that you in another thread trying to claim that?). Adam Curry and Dave Winer did that. Podcasting had become fairly popular in certain niches before Apple got involved. Adam gave Steve Jobs the initial directory of podcasts to get iTunes going in podcasting. The podcast industry is grateful to Apple for what they've done. But, now that it looks like Apple is messing up, it seems ready to move on if needed.