👉 Background: Spotify is the GOAT of music streaming with over 550 million users. But in 2021, Spotify shifted from being just a music streaming service to just an audio streaming service. That meant doubling down on podcasts, audiobooks, and anything else that can fit in your eardrums.

👉 What happened: Now, it's been revealed that Spotify's algorithms have been pushing "white noise podcasts" unintentionally— the non-talking podcasts that loop soothing sounds like rain, ocean, and fire.

👉 What else: White noise podcasts made up 3 million daily consumption hours on Spotify. And, some white noise creators were raking in at least $18,000 from ads placed by Spotify. While Spotify considered pulling the plug on these shows, the idea never came to fruition.

What's the key learning?

💡Algorithms, which are designed to analyse user behaviour and preferences, can sometimes push content in unexpected directions.

💡Spotify's algorithm had been instructed to favour talk content. But rather than podcasts dominating the airwaves, this unique niche of "talk content" (ie white noise) has found a place to thrive. This just highlights the power... but also the unpredictability of algorithm-driven products.

💡While this isn't a reputation-killer for Spotify, it has been for some other companies:

• Amazon developed an AI-driven recruitment algorithm, but it was shown to be biased against women.
• In 2016, Microsoft released a Twitter chatbot... but within 24 hours, it began tweeting racist and offensive content.

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