Spotify

The iPhone maker has filed a suit at the EU’s General Court, according to Bloomberg, after arguing that the investigation into the App Store’s music-streaming app distribution had failed “to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm.”

Julie McNamara, head of podcast studios, announced her departure on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. The company has seen a steady stream of exits as it pulls back on its podcast business.

In her Soundbite newsletter this week, Ashley Carman covers Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee. Lee is bucking the system by keeping the album, which earned a stellar Pitchfork review, off all the big music services like Spotify.

Monthly active users were up 19 percent year-over-year to 615 million, while subscribers were up 14 percent to 239 million. Co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek noted that the company just turned 18-years old, and “as an adult company we are now consistently profitable, which is great news.”

The music streaming app tells Bloomberg that 25 percent of subscribers in the US, UK, and Canada are listening to audiobooks — a sign subscribers are taking advantage of Spotify Premium’s free 15 hours of audiobook content.

Spotify just announced a new integration with Substack, which will allow Substack creators to distribute free and paywalled podcast episodes on the platform. For listeners, this means they can link their Substack and Spotify accounts. Last year, Spotify made a similar move with Patreon.

Both video and audio-only formats are supported in the more discrete player that can be resized from small to very small to best suit your desired desktop layout. Spotify says it’s only available for Premium subscribers right now. You’ll see the miniplayer toggle at the bottom right of the desktop player when available.

I’ll be telling my grandchildren this was Napster.

The artist pulled his catalog in early 2022 over its then-exclusive Joe Rogan deal, which Young said had resulted in Spotify spreading vaccine misinformation. Now, with the exclusivity deal over, Rogan’s podcast is also available on Apple and Amazon, and Young can’t keep his music off all of them.