MUMBAI: After launching the first three Spotify Original podcasts in India last December, the audio streaming platform now has an additional 12 podcasts. Predominantly non-fiction content, these podcasts explore news, heroes across communities, candid conversations, and a slice of life in India. Spotify has also added content from radio channels Radio City and Big FM, and Aawaz.com, an Indian podcast and spoken-word audio network; all of this will be exclusively available on the platform.

The 12 new podcasts include the recently launched originals such as Special Mission with Gul Panag, Maha Bharat with Dhruv Rathee, Zindagi Unplugged, Our Last Week with Anuvab & Kunaal, Off Script with Salil, with a total of over 200 episodes, all of which are already live. Several of these Spotify Original podcasts have regularly featured on the app’s podcast charts in the country, including Zindagi Unplugged, Off Script with Salil, and Special Mission with Gul Panag, with listeners not just in India, but also in the US, the UK, and Australia, among other countries.

Amarjit Batra, Managing Director at Spotify India, said, “It has been heartening to see the growing traction for podcasts on our platform in India. We’ve continuously analysed what users are listening to, and gradually commissioned Original podcasts that our local users relate to, and want to engage with. Much of this content is non-fiction, but we are also open to fiction. Besides the original content, we now have exclusive access to over 600 hours of content from Radio City, Big FM, and Aawaz.com, giving our growing listener base more reasons to make podcast listening a habit.”

Over the year, Indian listeners have been consuming lifestyle-based content with ‘Society & Culture’ emerging as the top genre on the platform. The top 10 podcasts showcase this trend, being mostly themed around self-improvement and motivation, including The Ranveer Show, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, TED Talks Daily, Sadhguru, 7 Good Minutes Daily Self-Improvement, among others. There is also a healthy dose of comedy with some of the more popular podcasts being Simple Ken, VIEWS with David Dobrik and Jason Nash, Office Ladies, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend and The Misfits Podcast. Additionally, recent times have seen users streaming News, Health & Fitness and Kids & Family content, as well as podcasts with the words “cooking” or “recipes” in the title or description.

“Creating high quality podcasts is a relatively new phenomenon in India, and at Spotify, we are keen to work with committed creators and production houses to bring relevant, local content for not only listeners in India, but also for our millions of users across 78 other markets. We’ve already worked with over 20 creators for Spotify Original podcasts in India, and have brought global best practices to them, increasing operational and creative efficiencies”, added Amarjit.

Spotify has over one million podcast titles on the platform today. In India, the company already has several more original podcasts and subsequent seasons of successful podcasts lined up over the remaining year.