I find it interesting to see the emphasis on algorithmic discovery here. I know that's Spotify's game, but podcasts just work much differently than how many people consume music content. Podcasts fit much more in the subscription model where you find a podcast you like and get alerted to new episodes (from the same producer) as they come out. They tend to be a steadier stream of content -- per week, couple of weeks, whatever -- rather than musicians dropping an album of songs all at once. And they, of course, tend to be longer-form content than your typical 2-5 minute song.
Of course, there's still some room for algorithmic discovery here -- you listen to this podcast, you might like that one too. But I currently subscribe to more podcasts than I can comfortably listen to already. I don't typically want new suggestions. Maybe a friend tells me about a one-off interesting episode from a podcast I don't subscribe to, and I might listen to that on their website or whatever. But I struggle to see the particular advantage that Spotify brings to the podcast ecosystem over the traditional RSS subscription model that already exists. There may be benefits to the producers, but I don't see much for the consumers. I just consume music very differently than I consume podcasts.
Of course, there's still some room for algorithmic discovery here -- you listen to this podcast, you might like that one too. But I currently subscribe to more podcasts than I can comfortably listen to already. I don't typically want new suggestions. Maybe a friend tells me about a one-off interesting episode from a podcast I don't subscribe to, and I might listen to that on their website or whatever. But I struggle to see the particular advantage that Spotify brings to the podcast ecosystem over the traditional RSS subscription model that already exists. There may be benefits to the producers, but I don't see much for the consumers. I just consume music very differently than I consume podcasts.