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March 14, 2024:
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An interesting example of good podcast ad-targeting on entertainment business podcast The Town (from Puck and The Ringer) - an ad targeting Disney shareholders telling them who to vote for in an upcoming AGM. (Thank you for the spot, Gene Monterastelli)
March 13, 2024:
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Spotify's The Ringer and Bad Robot Audio launches Dear Felicity today - an all-new star-studded podcast based on the JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves TV show. The show won't be an episode-by-episode rewatch; rather, we're promised an "innovative structure". It also has JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves as executive producers.
March 8, 2024:
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And, unions at Spotify Studios and The Ringer have reached tentative agreements with Spotify management. Both bargaining units made important gains in wages and achieved first-of-their-kind protections against Artificial Intelligence (AI).
January 29, 2024:
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The Gimlet Union reports that Spotify management are not participating in contract discussions. The Ringer Union “has made notable progress” on its negotations though, but differences remain.
December 6, 2023:
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Lydia Polgreen, the former managing director of Gimlet Media, has criticised Spotify for cancelling Heavyweight and Stolen. “If you can't make a go of it with these incredible shows you are simply bad at podcasting,” she wrote on Threads. She’s since deleted the post. Meanwhile, Dan Le Batard, a sports podcast host, claims that Spotify is “junking up the numbers”, and “the numbers are jerryrigged”, after a conspiracy theory from a fan that Spotify is deliberately holding back sports shows that aren’t from The Ringer.
October 19, 2023:
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The Wedding Scammer is new from The Ringer, and is the Spotify-owned company's first ever true crime podcast. Justin Sayles tracks a mysterious figure who once wronged him. A man with a lot of aliases, a lot of failed businesses, and a trail of victims. Justin follows him through a sham media company, a series of ruined weddings, and beyond, trying to find answers.
October 13, 2023:
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Bloomberg has published a 25 minute conference session with Founder & CEO of The Ringer, Bill Simmons.
August 22, 2023:
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Troy Farkas, a former producer for The Ringer and ESPN, has published his first book. Surrender: A Guide to Living Your Best Life in Your Twenties includes his own experiences and lessons learned from his time navigating the early stages of his career at both companies.
June 6, 2023:
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Spotify is to cut 200 jobs from its podcasting division. The company says that's 2% of Spotify's global workforce; but these are substantial cuts to the podcast division. While Spotify couldn't tell us how many staff work in podcasting overall, various reports suggest Gimlet has around 125 employees, Parcast has about 40, and The Ringer about 120.
April 19, 2023:
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A generally held truth is that none of Spotify's The Ringer shows are exclusive to the platform. That's not quite true: The Ringer MMA Show has been mainly exclusive on Spotify. The show was once produced on Spotify Greenroom; it appears to now be made using Twitter Spaces.
March 24, 2023:
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Hiding in The Ringer NFL Show over the next week is Blackballed, a new four-part narrative podcast hosted by Chelsea Stark-Jones examining the “Forgotten Four” Black players who reintegrated professional football in 1946. It's new from Spotify's The Ringer.
October 14, 2022:
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The spotlight is focusing on Spotify's podcasting business. Skye Pillsbury has published "an oral history of Gimlet's slow demise" after interviewing five current and former Gimlet staffers. Ariel Shapiro takes a look at Spotify’s practice of making its podcasts exclusive, and also notes that The Ringer didn't make any layoffs. Ashley Carman suggests that Spotify is refining its strategy.
September 21, 2022:
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Spotify's The Ringer has added local sports podcasts, focusing on some of the biggest sports markets in the country: Boston, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. Off the Pike with Brian Barrett, The Full Go with Jason Goff, New York, New York with John Jastremski and The Ringer's Philly Special are all now available.
September 14, 2022:
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Spotify is the top podcast network in the US based on reach, according to new data from Edison Research. The data measures total listeners to shows from each podcast publisher for the 12 months ending June 30 2022. Spotify's numbers include Spotify Originals, as well as shows from The Ringer, Gimlet, Parcast and others. iHeartRadio remains in third place, behind SXM Media.
August 11, 2022:
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It's almost time for the World Cup, and the newest original podcast from Spotify's The Ringer, 22 Goals, has gone live. Hosted by Brian Phillips, it looks at the most famous and iconic goals in the history of the football/soccer tournament, and starts with Maradona's "Hand of God" where he cheated England out of reaching the semifinals in 1986. Too soon, Spotify, too soon.
May 13, 2022:
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Bill Simmons is being promoted to Global head of Sports Content at Spotify, retaining his role as MD at The Ringer.
January 21, 2022:
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Sports Illustrated Weekly is new from iHeartRadio and Sports Illustrated. It's hosted by John Gonzalez, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, and former podcast host at The Ringer. - read more
January 12, 2022:
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Spotify has shut down its original podcasting studio, known internally as Studio 4. 15 people will be either moved to other roles or made redundant. Described as a "junk drawer" by one staffer, the division produced the shows that weren't produced by Gimlet, Parcast or The Ringer (which Spotify purchased later). Shows don't appear to be cancelled.
December 10, 2021:
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At iHeartRadio, podcast producers, editors, researchers, writers and hosts are unionising with the Writers Guild of America, East. The iHeart Podcast Union was launched yesterday; the website contains many concerns about working conditions. Saying that they "have been encouraged to embrace the dynamism of start-up culture without any of the associated benefits", the union says "iHeartMedia's overall compensation and benefits standards are wholly insufficient when compared to the greater podcast and scripted audio market". The union has support from around 70% of employees, we're told. The union hopes that iHeart will voluntarily recognise it; it's the latest unionising activity in the podcast space after Gimlet, Parcast, The Ringer, and others.
September 2, 2021:
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Spotify is now producing the audio section of US airline Delta's in-flight seatback entertainment. The service contains mixtapes of music, and 42 podcast series including Gimlet's Science Vs, The Ringer's The Dave Chang Show and WSJ/Gimlet's The Journal, as well as Crime Junkie (which isn't a Spotify show). Spotify's original deal with Delta was announced two years ago: at that time it was podcast-only, and Delta was seeing around 16.5m passengers every month; JetBlue also signed with Spotify in November 2019. Podcasts are also on other airlines.
August 20, 2021:
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Spotify's The Ringer has signed a deal with professional wrestling company WWE for an exclusive audio network. The deal includes podcast series and Spotify Greenroom events.
June 22, 2021:
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Ariel Helwani has announced he is to do an exclusive show for Spotify's The Ringer within Spotify Greenroom. "We'll do a live show, with callers and taking your questions, and it'll be made available as a podcast": this sounds like the first announcement of Greenroom being used as a podcast source. Additionally, The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani returns to SB Nation and the Vox Media Network from mid-August, the companies have announced.
May 14, 2021:
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No Skips with Jinx and Shea is a new show with music from Spotify from The Ringer, looking at thirty rap albums where every track is a winner. Each episode focuses on a single album.
April 9, 2021:
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The writers and producers at Spotify's Gimlet Media and Spotify's The Ringer, two of the first podcast production companies to unionize with the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), both ratified their first collective bargaining agreements. The agreements mean, among other things, increases for salary minimums and a limit to the use of contractors; and should set a template for others.
March 18, 2021:
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The Rugby Pod, "the most-listened-to rugby podcast in the world", has been acquired by Spotify's The Ringer sports podcast division.
December 15, 2020:
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Union members at Spotify's Gimlet, Parcast and The Ringer stopped work for two hours on Friday protesting the slow pace of agreeing a contract with the company.
November 23, 2020:
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The NYT writes about a dispute between the unions and management at The Ringer.
September 3, 2020:
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Spotify-owned Parcast is unionizing, reports The Verge. Spotify has voluntarily recognised Gimlet, and is negotiating with The Ringer's union.
August 18, 2020:
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Spotify has launched a new music-and-podcasts playlist in the US called Daily Sports. It includes updates, including exclusive content, from The Ringer, Spotify's sports podcast network, as well as other content.
June 16, 2020:
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The Stadio Podcast has been acquired by The Ringer, Spotify's sports podcast network, and will be within the Ringer FC feed. It won't be an exclusive to Spotify.
June 5, 2020:
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Bill Simmons has apologised for comments made in The Bill Simmons Podcast, according to a report in the NY Daily News. "I’m 50 years old, I still barely know what I’m doing, I’m still gonna make mistakes," he said. An apparent commitment to diverse hiring was criticised by the Ringer's staff union on Monday.
February 12, 2020:
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How much did Spotify pay for The Ringer?: $250m, say Bloomberg - $200m now, $50m later.
February 10, 2020:
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Will Spotify ruin podcasting? argues that Spotify plan to, eventually, "force podcasters to live in its ecosystem." The author, Matt Stoller, also argues that Spotify should be blocked from purchasing The Ringer.
February 6, 2020:
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As scooped by Vox's Peter Kafka, Spotify has confirmed it is buying The Ringer, a sports podcast network with more than 30 shows. Terms weren't disclosed; The Ringer earnt $15m in revenue in 2018; the price is likely to be around $100m based on a discussion with WarnerMedia last year.
January 20, 2020:
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Spotify is potentially buying The Ringer, which creates sports and pop-culture content, says the Wall Street Journal.
January 6, 2020:
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$600: In 2019 The Rewatchables celebrated the 30th anniversary of this movie about Charlie Sheen & his Cleveland Indians teammates - A: Major League, since you're wondering, in this episode from Apr 10. (The Ringer / ART19)
January 30, 2019:
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HotPod 193 is out, including a look at how The Ringer works ("is it a model for podcasting success?") and also a look at "a pickle jar of listener malcontent" - the BBC Sounds app.
September 7, 2018:
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Sports Podcast Producer - NBA (The Ringer, Los Angeles CA, USA)
July 6, 2018:
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Event: The Outlier Podcast Festival, in Los Angeles CA, USA, is on September 29 and 30, including speakers from Stitcher, Earbuds and The Ringer.
April 2, 2018:
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Job: The Ringer is looking for a Senior Sports Podcast Producer, based in Los Angeles CA, USA.
February 12, 2018:
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Podcasting is the new soft diplomacy - a piece in The Ringer about the influence of US podcasting in Australia.