Tag: RADAR PODCASTERS

Spotify’s RADAR Program Brings a Fresh Look and New Stories From Global Artists, Songwriters, and Podcasters

Cover Image for RADAR

Since 2020, RADAR has been the global home for what’s next in sound, lifting up rising artists, burgeoning songwriters, and promising podcasters as they develop and expand their global reach on the path to superstardom. To best represent the wide breadth of RADAR and strengthen its commitment to bringing emerging talent to the forefront, we’re taking a step forward in our journey of inviting listeners to witness the future of music, songwriting, and podcasting by bringing them into the creator’s world.

Starting today you’ll notice RADAR’s new look gracing the program’s global collection of playlists, as well as billboards, platform marketing, and social content. Feturing a distinctive paper cutout visual identity, RADAR will put a strong focus on bringing rich storytelling to the mix in addition to a prominent feature on the RADAR playlists. With videos that show  who tomorrow’s stars are, what inspires them, and what keeps them going, listeners can step into the world of their new favorite creators. 

“We’re thrilled to introduce audiences to the future of music, songwriting, and podcasts with this new campaign,” Hannah Beeching, Global Music Programs Lead at Spotify, tells For the Record. “RADAR originally started as a way to support emerging artists and has now expanded to include songwriters and podcasters from around the world. The program gives creators a global platform to help grow their careers and reach new and existing fans through bespoke social content, marketing, and editorial opportunities.” 

Featuring a roster of over 700 artists across 183 countries since its inception, Spotify’s RADAR program has helped showcase what’s next in the world of music, lifting up the very best in global songwriting and performing talent. In recent years, we’ve been proud to support RADAR alumni like Libianca, Alessandro La Cava, Veigh, Shermanology, Tyla, NMIXX, and one of the hottest stars on the planet, Peso Pluma

“Songwriters are the heart of the music industry, and we’re proud to bring greater visibility to their craft with RADAR Songwriters,” says Jacqueline Ankner, Songwriter & Publishing Relations Manager at Spotify. “We’ve introduced international hitmakers such as Ines Dunn, Natali Noor, Alessandro La Cava, Beach Noise, and more to new fans globally. We’re excited to continue to elevate the next generation of songwriting superstars with RADAR.”

Podcaster Wrapped Celebrates Podcast Creators and Their Fans in 2022

Earlier this week we revealed 2022 Wrapped, our annual campaign that brings creators and fans together around a shared love of all things audio. And to accompany it, we launched Podcaster Wrapped for creators. 

Podcaster Wrapped is our way to recognize achievements across our podcast creator ecosystem and offer a unique peek into user behavior and listening trends from the past year. And what a year it was! We were blown away by the amount of podcast content created: It would take you over 1,500 years to listen to every minute of the 25 million+ podcast episodes published in 2022. 

As we look back at all the meaningful moments that made up 2022—the milestones, big wins, and one-of-a-kind connection that brings creators and fans together—it’s clear there’s a lot to celebrate. 

More for listeners and creators to love

This year, we saw a more than 50% increase in podcast consumption. Over half of the billions of hours of content played in 2022 was newly published since January.

Meanwhile, we continued to build innovative tools that enable podcasters to create, grow, and monetize their content in new ways. We brought video podcasts to creators in over 180 markets so that listeners can enjoy a visual complement to content and creators have a new way to reach and connect with their fans. We also made it easier for creators to sound better with a new audio enhancement feature, and we expanded our interactivity capabilities by making Q&A and Polls available to creators around the world.

Getting to know you

We launched our first-ever Fan Study for podcasters, giving creators insights into fan behavior so they can make more informed decisions about how to grow their show. Through Fan Study, we learned things like fans who follow your podcast will listen to four times the number of episodes, and Gen Z’s podcast discovery is growing at twice the rate of other generations.  

We elevated dozens of emerging podcasters from around the world with programs like RADAR Podcasters and Sound Up, which both aim to spotlight up-and-coming creators and provide them with support to grow their audiences.

Near and far

And we continued to see that podcasts are truly global. Podcaster Wrapped showed us that the majority of podcasts published are listened to in more than one country, and we’re seeing impressive creation growth in Central and South America, specifically Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. These countries saw a more than 50% increase in new shows created between 2021 and 2022. The top markets in terms of shows published are the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, and India. 

We love seeing creators grow and hit their strides, and we’ll continue to build programs and tools to help podcasters of all kinds find success in 2023 and beyond.

Discover Even More Emerging Creators With RADAR Podcasters

RADAR PODCASTERS

More podcast creators than ever are switching their mics on with Anchor. With this comes more chances than ever for listeners to fall in love with new shows. And with more podcasts comes more opportunities to amplify creators, connect them to fans, and help listeners find new shows. Spotify’s Podcast Editorial and Anchor teams have debuted Creator Space, an external submission tool, and a Discord server for the growing community of podcast enthusiasts. 

Today, we’re expanding on this work by kicking off RADAR Podcasters, a podcast-creator version of the Spotify program designed to spotlight emerging voices worldwide. It takes its name and format from RADAR, which supports up-and-coming artists. 

Through RADAR, we’re deepening our commitment to emerging creators and strengthening their connection to audiences. To start, we’re highlighting more than 40 creators around the world, in countries where podcasting continues to grow—the U.S, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Colombia, India, France, Argentina, Chile, Japan, Australia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Indonesia, and the Philippines. 

What’s unique about the podcasting scene where you work?