Spotify Case Study: Behind a $900M Podcast
Applying behavioral economics to analyze my user experience through the app.
From their first acquisition in 2019 with Gimlet Media, to their latest deal with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Spotify have reportedly spent around $900 million on their podcast venture during the last two years. In between, they’ve been on a shopping spree signing high-profiles like Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian West, and Michelle Obama to their platform. Today, they are well on their way of transforming from a music streaming company to a fully fledged audio first company.
With all that lavish spending though, the big question is whether their app is living up to their high expenses? After all, the app is where Spotify users are hanging out the most. An optimized app experience is therefore of utmost importance to keep those precious users coming back (instead of running to rival Apple Music for example…).
With all that lavish spending though, the big question is whether their app is living up to their high expenses?
Previously, I had other apps to handle my podcast activities and used Spotify only for music. However, after all the effort they had put into their podcast activities, I thought I should give them a try. Also, I was veeery eager to find out if my user journey with their podcast would match up to their spending. Would it feel like a luxurious $900 million trip, or a hangover from hell?
Goal
Today, the Spotify app will be sliced and diced to pieces as I’ll dive into what works, doesn’t work, and what can be optimized with their podcast services. The focus of the analysis will center around three different goals, and all of them will be scrutinized from a behavioral economics perspective. The three goals are the following:
1: Search for podcasts 🔍
2: Listen to a podcast 🎧
3: Test the personal recommendation engine 🧪
Let’s enter the app and begin with goal 1: the search for podcasts!
1. Search for podcasts
As I’m waiting to get inside Spotify’s world, I’m noticing for the first time that their entry isn’t very..enticing. It’s actually quite basic. I’m comparing this of course to two of my favorite apps: Calm which sets a relaxing tone immediately by telling me to “take a deep breath,” and Karma which makes me feel like I’m saving the world with “over four million food items rescued!”.
So here comes tip number one!
💡 Tip: By setting a positive tone immediately at the beginning of a user experience, Spotify could enhance users’ perception of them. The psychology is based on anchoring bias, which states that the initial piece of information that individuals receive, will affect subsequent judgements in decision-making.
Spotify could do an A/B test here by putting their slogan “listening is everything” below their brand icon and see if it reduces bounce rate for example.
🧠 Psychology says: Another benefit of showing a company slogan is that if it’s shown often, it will eventually stick to people’s minds. Companies benefit from this of course, because when consumers are choosing a service, the slogan that is top of mind will be chosen. This effect can be associated with the mere-exposure effect, which states that people tend to prefer things that they are familiar with.
Just be careful not to over-expose your viewers with your slogan as it can lead to exposure fatigue. Striking the right balance is important!
After clicking on Your Library at the navigation menu I enter this familiar music section. Interesting by the way that the Music category is set as the default option when I enter. I wonder if this would change in the future if I start listening more to podcasts?
I love how they separate the music category from the podcast category on top of the page with two tabs. Spotify is also using highlighting principles here with white as primary color and gray as secondary color. Combining contrast with highlighting helps viewers focus their attention on what you want them to read.
In this context however, this technique has a downside, because the podcast option is less obvious at first glance. Making the podcast tab more prominent while keeping a sense of familiarity to the design, would be a good idea to get more attention from users.
🧠 Psychology says: Tech giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Spotify do not make drastic changes to their designs overnight despite having large budgets for it. Instead, they make slight changes a few times a year, gradually. Why this strategy? First of all, they know that drastic changes can alienate their users: humans are more likely to be drawn to what they are already familiar with, rather than what is completely new.
Humans are more likely to be drawn to what they are already familiar with, rather than what is completely new.
Secondly, Weber’s law states that subtle changes won’t be noticeable. For example, if you turn off the lights in a room and it goes pitch black, the change will be very apparent. However, if you only dim the lights 5%, it won’t make a big difference, and hence won’t be noticeable by most people either. This is a good thing in product design when you want to keep the feeling of familiarity to the users.
I click on Podcasts and..aha! The first nudge I’m seeing: “looking for something to listen to?” Oh, yes I am. It speaks directly to me and my internal motivation, and most importantly, it’s a gentle nudge, and not a push. A clear and simple copy that uses both sympathy and temptation, but the CTA could be more alluring than “Browse.” In any case the page is simple with few choices, and one CTA, which is excellent. Why? Because the more options Spotify give, the more they will distract users from the desired goal. And Spotify’s goal here is clearly to get me to browse their library and get engaged.
💡 Tip: Nudging users into the desired direction is much more effective than pushing them, because users want to feel like they are in the driver seat. Also, before making users take more “complex” actions like filtering (which is a bigger commitment), you want to start simple and easy. In addition, you should always aim to make users take the desired action effortlessly. This is why one simple CTA is a good start.
🧠 Psychology says: The Paradox of Choice is a book (and also famous Ted Talk!) by psychologist Barry Schwartz, which states that eliminating choices will reduce anxiety for consumers. Besides requiring less effort, it will also reduce the chances of buyers remorse. More choices raises our standards, which makes us think if the other options could have been better. There’s a good reason therefore that most company home pages only have one CTA on their header.
Alright, now it’s time to engage! Notice by the way how Spotify eased me into their podcast catalogue with one low-stake micro-commitment previously? Small steps reduce rejection and increase conversions, because it doesn’t activate our “flight or fight’’ response in the brain.
The page is visually interesting. Big tiles make it easy to click on, and images are accompanying text so I can scan through topics quickly. Very good! Research shows that our brains scan pages rather than reading in detail. This is especially true for mobile users who are more on the go than those using desktop. Text and images/icons are therefore a good combination when designing for mobile.
However, the categories have very similar designs, with some even sharing the same background color. This could confuse the user as the eye likes to group similar elements together.
I don’t find anything interesting here though, so I keep scrolling down and click onward with See all categories.
Whoah, what happened here? Now I know Spotify has a catalogue of over one million podcasts, but squeezing everything in like this is just..ugh.This looks like an unfinished wireframe to me, and I’m feeling exhausted just looking at it.
There’s lots of small text that demands effort for my eyes to go through, a looong bullet point’y list that never seems to end (infinite scroll style), no clear visual division between categories and subcategories, and an overwhelming number of choices that I won’t remember. I don’t feel like going through this. Get me out of here!
🧠 Psychology says: Hick’s law states that the more choices there are, the more time and effort it will take for us to make a decision. Making users sort through a long list can therefore be risky because it demands a lot of mental effort.
In addition, the more information added to an interface, the more difficult it becomes to digest, according to Miller’s law. This is because our short-term memory is limited, and our brain therefore prefers to sort information in our minds in “chunks.” For example, memorizing the phone number 713–85–04–09 is easier than 713850409.
Hence, dividing content into clearly visual distinct groups makes it easier to digest and comprehend. This is especially true for new users who haven’t had the chance to store the interface in their long-term memory yet.
My attempt of finding an awesome podcast isn’t working so I turn to my other app, write down my three favorite podcasts from my library and hop back on Spotify to find them.
As I’m going through this process, I get an idea: wouldn’t it be amazing if Spotify had a function where users could easily import their podcasts from other apps into their Spotify library? Spotify would be able to recruit more users to them this way, and users would be able to build a personalized library quickly, making them more engaged with the app. Win-win!
Alright, so back to the app. As I’m typing, a result list pops up immediately: a mixture of playlists, podcasts, songs, and a Ted Talk episode..hmm. I like the quick response, and the algorithms got it right immediately (I was looking for Choiceology), but wouldn’t it be better to have a separate filter here for podcasts and music, instead of having everything mashed together?
💡 Tip: A search option that separates podcasts, songs and playlists would be a great way to let users find what they want quickly, since the results would be more specified and organized.
LinkedIn has a nice filter option within the result list that makes it easy for users to quickly see results within a chosen category, and Instagram separates their categories with different tabs on top of the page.
Now it’s time to move on to goal two: the listening experience!
2. Listen to a podcast
I enter the Choiceology podcast and I’m immediately impressed. I’m familiar with this show from before, but I’ve never seen it presented this way, so visually appealing! Both aesthetics and functions are working into a harmonious blend of beautiful symphony! It draws me in immediately, triggering my curiosity and persuading me to learn more.
There’s so many things I like here, but let’s start with the very prominent trailer. The trailer is a good onboarding process because it builds trust and excitement. The law of reciprocity means we should give value before we take, and Spotify is using that strategy well here. Listening to a podcast is a bigger investment than listening to music, so understandably, users want to know if they will receive value from it, before fully committing to an episode. The trailer therefore works well for new users like me.
Listening to a podcast is a bigger investment than listening to music, so understandably, users want to know if they will receive value from it, before fully committing to an episode.
The only downside I assume is that it does take a lot of space, and could therefore be annoying to recurring users who might have other needs (such as getting to the latest episode quickly). In any case, it’s interesting to note that Spotify has decided to focus their design on onboarding of new users, instead of recurring users.
I also like the pop-ups that show up when I click Follow and save an episode, as it gives me a sense of reassurance and control. The wording Added to Your Episodes is a bit confusing though. Is “Your Episodes” the same thing as a playlist?
Ok, so the only thing I truly dislike is that they don’t have a rating function anywhere. I’m familiar with this podcast from before, but how can new users who are just window-shopping know it’s worth listening to? Perhaps Spotify is trying to make up the lack of social proof here with their trailer, but that might not be enough to convince everyone to take action.
🧠 Psychology says: Social proof theory was popularized by psychologist Robert Cialdini in his book Influence. It states that whenever we are uncertain about something, we will assume that others possess more knowledge than us, and hence follow them.
Connecting this to Spotify’s case, positive reviews means people will be more likely to take action and listen to the podcast, because they assume if others liked it, it must be good!
After listening to an excellent episode I’m searching for the save button. After clicking around I discover it under the three dots on the top right corner. The wording is different this time though: “Your Episodes” have now been replaced with “Add to playlist”, though they both lead to the exact same spot. A bit confusing.
One thing that is clearly missing here is the option to put an episode in queue. There’s also no option to quickly put episodes into a favorite list. The only solution actually is to create a playlist or use Spotify’s pre-made list “Your Episodes.”
But creating a podcast playlist is the ultimate commitment and I’m not ready to go down that road yet. Queuing an episode or putting it into “favorites” takes less effort though, so I don’t mind that. Spotify is missing a big opportunity here, as those functions could increase the chances of retention for newbies like me.
🧠 Psychology says: The more we invest in a product, the higher the chances of committing to it. Every time users add an episode to their playlist/favorites, they are strengthening ties to the service.
However, to initiate action, the doing must be easier than the thinking. The less thinking, the higher the chances of the behavior happening unconsciously. Therefore, products that require less effort to perform, are more effective in acquiring and keeping users.
Considering that new users are just warming up to Spotify’s service, the action Spotify want users to take (creating a playlist) requires more time and effort than new users are willing to give. Making users take small commitments in the beginning is therefore a better strategy in order to persuade them for bigger commitments later.
Considering that new users are just warming up to Spotify’s service, the action Spotify want users to take (creating a playlist) requires more time and effort than new users are willing to give.
This works because humans are more likely to continue an effort if they’ve already invested in it. Or as psychologist Robert Cialdini says:
“Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.”
3: Test the personal recommendation engine
After three days, I’ve listened to a few different podcasts and I’m curious to see what the powerful discovery engine got in store for me! Up until now, it feels like the recommendation engine has been asleep, not ready to deliver, even when I’ve been at my most receptive: when I followed a podcast, when I added an episode, when I finished my first podcast episode…but perhaps it’s ready to kick in now, since it has more data from me?
When I enter the home page, the first thing I see is a summary of the latest episodes I’ve listened to, and it’s all over the place. On the home page alone, it’s showing up three times: in the header category, under Recently played and under Continue listening. And of course it’s also showing up in Your Library. Isn’t this a little…too much?
As I scroll further down the page, I’m finally seeing some recommendations but it’s not aligning with the topics I’ve previously listened to. And why are the recommendations not higher up on the page?
The majority of the other recommendations on the home page are based on music, which begs the question: can podcasts and music get along under the same roof?
Can podcasts and music get along under the same roof?
Now, in Spotify’s defense, I must say I’ve used their recommendation engine several times before when discovering new music and it has always delivered. The “Made for you” lists are one of my favorites. It would be great to see a similar function in the future for their podcasts.
💡 Tip: Recommendation engines drive engagement and loyalty and should always be prominent on a page. However, if the personalized suggestions are too diverse, it will be more difficult to make sense of them, and user interaction thus decreases. It’s therefore a good idea to break recommended content into smaller subcategories.
Spotify use this principle exceptionally well with their “Daily Mixes” and “Made for you” lists, which groups songs together based on their genre, but a similar method could also be used for their podcasts.
As I’m seeing the recommendations I think to myself that it would have been excellent if there was an option for me to edit and sort them after my own interests. At the very least, Spotify could have a method for me to give feedback on the recommendations.
As an example, below is a screenshot of LinkedIns’ function for user feedback.
💡 Tip: When I saw recommended podcasts and categories that were not aligned with my interests, I wanted to share that feedback with Spotify so that similar content wouldn’t show up in the future. Sadly, this option does not exist currently.
Products that use personalized content often, should also provide an easy method for users to provide feedback on that content. Even if such function is not used by all users, it’s still a good way to get valuable insights on how to optimize a service/product. In addition, when users feel included in the process, the value of the product increases to them.
🧠 Psychology says: The endowment effect states that when we feel a sense of ownership over a product or service, we value it more highly than if we felt it didn’t belong to us. This is why 30-day free trials are so common in the market for example. When we start using a product and build a connection to it, our sense of ownership for that product also increases. Gradually then we will be more willing to pay a price to continue to “own” that product.
The same principle goes for user feedback and other types of processes were the user get the opportunity to be part of the process of a product/service.
Conclusion
It’s been a long user journey with both ups and downs, so what’s the verdict now? Did the app live up to its high expenses?
Well, the potential is there, but Spotify’s app is still in need of major improvements.
Here is a summary of the pros and cons…
😃 Advantages:
- A huge catalogue of over one million podcasts meant I could find almost anything here.
- A beautiful and functional design within each podcast page gave a good overview. A big plus also for the prominent podcast trailers.
- The familiarity of the design made my transition from music to podcast activities smooth and easy.
- The catalogue section was easy to scan through because of the nice combination of texts and images. A plus also for the big tiles.
- The podcast episodes continued uninterrupted, unlike the music streaming service (though this is most likely because the podcast ads are inside each episode).
And here are some of the cons…
😒 Disadvantages:
- The mixture of music, podcasts, and playlists throughout the app felt a bit confusing and messy at times.
- The search results showed a bit of everything. No quick and easy filter function was available.
- There was no option for queueing podcast episodes.
- The personal recommendation engine was only vaguely active, and when it was, it didn’t quite deliver.
- Recently played episodes were all over the place.
- No feedback function was available to improve my recommendations.
- As seen in “All podcast categories,” Spotify didn’t seem to have solution yet to present all their categories and subcategories in a user friendly, organized manner.
At the moment, I believe Spotify could work very well for the occasional podcast user, as it’s easy and convenient to switch between music and podcast. It was not enough for a heavy podcast user like me though, and I switched back to my old podcast after a week.
Note well that I still use Spotify for music though, and absolutely love the service and product in general.
In the end, with the streaming giant’s hard work and ambition to expand, it’s only a matter of time before they’ve raised the standard of their podcast services to the same level as their music streaming.
With the streaming giant’s hard work and ambition to expand, it’s only a matter of time before they’ve raised the standard of their podcast services to the same level as their music streaming.
And when that happens, the podcast world better watch out.
This article was originally published on my blog. For more reading check out my blog page https://tashina.se/blog/
