Platforms as audio discovery ecosystems: What Spotify’s podcast rankings tell us about the way platforms appropriate the format

Abstract

Contemporary mediation gravitates around platforms, central structures where users and content converge. As the pivotal format for mediation through sound, intersecting culture, economy, technology and social processes, podcasting has drawn the attention of platforms which have been investing heavily on attracting/retaining producers and listeners alike, by facilitating production, securing the rights to exclusive content, and providing unique ways to interact with content. In this article we analyze Spotify’s Top Podcast rankings in Portugal, using descriptive analysis to identify and characterize content, to determine how discovery is promoted and how diverse is the content being presented to users, determining their perception of the format. We argue that content diversity is central to a format that has become mainstream within contemporary digital and audio culture, through the convergence of independent and mainstream producers in the unique content sphere of podcasting. Platforms may be regarded as enabling agents for this process, having become both audio discovery ecosystems and gatekeepers for the format.