Spotify and YouTube war for podcast domination

Welcome to May. We’ve may-de it. Let’s see what in the marketing world has followed us into a new month.

Spotify and YouTube battle to rule podcast listenership

YouTube is coming for Spotify—now, users can listen to podcasts on YouTube Music. Now, anyone watching a podcast’s video on YouTube can pick up where they left off and listen to just the audio via YouTube Music. That means users can go from watching at home to listening on the go. But Spotify isn’t going easily into the night—it still comes out on top when it comes to podcast hosting companies.

However,YouTube’s new functionality comes at a crucial juncture. After Spotify’s big push into funding original podcasts, their mass layoff at the beginning of 2023, and Spotify’s entry into visual content via video podcasts, YouTube most likely feels it can leverage its already-large creator base and emphasis on video to win. Afterall, the new homepage of Spotify’s app has also taken cues from YouTube to prioritize vertical video and content scrolling.

Marketers have two options for their podcast advertisements—but it looks like YouTube is pulling out the stops to become the number one destination for audio. Unfortunately, YouTube’s lack of support when it comes to podcast creation (minus a couple of Google help articles) might be the factor that holds it back from truly usurping Spotify for podcast listenership.

Marketers get a little help from users’ generated content

Instagram is now allowing shops to leverage user-generated content (UGC), putting less pressure on marketers to create ads and more emphasis on products made to deliver brand advocates. Shops can now associate any content they’re tagged in with a specific product and then display that content across product pages, shops, and Instagram storefront. All they need to do is request the content creator’s permission

Considering the comment section of most Instagram ads includes users asking other users for their opinions and product use, Instagram’s decided to make it part of the experience to help customers make “informed purchase decisions” and “see how people are using [shop] products.”

If customers become brand advocates down the marketing funnel, then marketers can focus on top-of-the-funnel content to get those customers in the pipeline. Instagram’s new functionality is letting marketers focus on nurturing those relationships and any new leads they enable. Talk about a win.

Sponsored by Hubspot Podcast Network

Everything You Need to Know About Artificial Intelligence

If you're anything like us, your social feeds have been saturated with two letters: AI. Check out this curated playlist from the HubSpot Marketing Channel to get the freshest ChatGPT updates, AI tips and tricks, and even an intro to HubSpot's very own AI-powered Chat App, ChatSpot.ai.

Hear from:

Jump into the playlist now!

Around the Web

Just Can’t Get Enough

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. More Asian diversity, representation, and inclusion is a must—the demographic is far from a monolith.

Do you advertise on podcasts? Who do you think will win in the great battle for podcast listener—and now viewer!—ship? Will you leverage user-generated content on Instagram? Why wouldn’t you? Reply and let us know everything!

Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you Thursday!