From Hobby to Phenomenon: ‘Acquired’ Cohost David Rosenthal on the Secret to Podcast Success
Now Playing 2024
Some of the world’s top creators joined Spotify at our L.A. campus today for Now Playing, where we unveiled a series of new offerings aimed at helping them better monetize their video podcasts on Spotify and grow their audiences. This marks our biggest update to podcasts on Spotify, including an exciting evolution of the name and brand of our accompanying platform to Spotify for Creators—all to better serve the multiformat needs of our community.
Guests mingled with Spotify leaders and employees, explored our cutting-edge production facilities, and attended panels to hear more about their business opportunities on Spotify. Among these creators was David Rosenthal, who cohosts Acquired with Ben Gilbert.
David Rosenthal, Colin Rosenblum, Samir Chaudry and Austin Lamon (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images for Spotify)
Acquired delves deep into the world’s most fascinating companies, delivering one multihour, meticulously researched episode every six weeks or so. Since debuting in 2015, the show has become a podcast sensation. It has racked up more than 5.2 million listening hours on Spotify since 2019, with consumption hours tripling in the last year alone. And in September, Acquired packed San Francisco’s Chase Center with 6,000 fans for a live show, which included a conversation with Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek.
With so much buzz about the future of podcasting, For the Record caught up with David to learn about Acquired’s origins, the creative process behind the show, and the impact Spotify has had on its journey.
What inspired you to start your show?
We were just friends with a common esoteric interest in company histories and wanted an excuse to scratch that itch and spend more time together. We had no idea or expectations that it would ever amount to anything more than a hobby, let alone change our lives so totally and completely!
How do you select the topics you cover?
We just follow our interests! While we do have a long list of potential future companies to cover, after each episode Ben and I generally just ask ourselves, “What are we most excited about doing right now?” and go with that. Sometimes that’s already on the list and sometimes it’s not.
How has working with Spotify helped strengthen your connection with your fans?
We can’t overstate enough how much Spotify has done to make podcasts mainstream and grow the ecosystem over the past several years. There’s no way we’d be able to reach an audience that’s now in the millions without the platform Spotify has built!
What advice do you have for emerging creators?
One, only do this if you love it. Not because there’s no money in it—there is plenty. But the marketplace for content is so incredibly vast today that unless you’re truly the most obsessed person in the world about your particular niche, someone else will do it better than you. (And they are only one click away, for your audience.) And I think the only way to be the most obsessed person in the world about something is to deeply love it.
Two, quality over quantity—always, always, always. One truly great episode per month is worth infinitely more than four or 10 mediocre ones.
Are there any Spotify features or tools that are especially helpful for you?
We don’t do video often, but when we do for something special (like our recent Chase Center show), being able to have it seamlessly integrate and sync with the audio version on Spotify is tremendously awesome.
Who are some of your favorite creators to follow?
Resonant Arc (deep retro video game analysis). It’s like Acquired for the old-school video games I grew up with.
What are you currently listening to?
Ben Thompson’s [Stratechery episode] on Meta’s AI advantage.
Check out more coverage from Spotify’s Now Playing event.
