Why YouTube and Spotify Keep Investing in Audio

In February 2025, YouTube said it had more than one billion monthly podcast viewers (YouTube Blog). The largest video platform is putting substantial weight behind a format that does not always require a screen.

Spotify has moved in the other direction: from music into podcasts, audiobooks, video, and a broader advertising marketplace. Both companies are pursuing the same scarce resource—the parts of a user’s day that visual media cannot easily reach.

I used to analyze revenue and audience behavior for a large Japanese publisher. Session endings did not always mean that a story had failed. They often reflected a change in the reader’s situation: a train arrived, work began, or hands became occupied. Audio can cross those breaks.

Audio removes the requirement to keep watching

Video carries a great deal of information, but it needs attention from the eyes. Commuting, cooking, and exercise interrupt even strong video content. Background playback and audio-only modes give users a way to continue.

YouTube Music supports audio-only podcast playback, as described in Google’s help documentation. Spotify expanded from music to spoken-word programs and then to audiobooks. Each step increases the number of moments in a day when the service remains useful.

This is not a simple migration from video to sound. Younger audiences may discover a show through a clip, watch part of it, and listen to the rest while moving. The same mixed behavior appears in Gen Z news consumption.

Longer sessions create inventory, not guaranteed revenue

More listening time can create more opportunities for ads and subscriptions. It does not follow that every additional minute produces the same amount of revenue. Paid users may not hear ads, and too many interruptions reduce completion.

Spotify launched the Spotify Ad Exchange in April 2025 and opened inventory to more programmatic buying connections (Spotify Newsroom). This is as much an investment in how audio is sold as in how it is produced.

In publisher work, I often saw a rise in time spent presented as a complete success. The decision looked different when repeat visits or loading performance deteriorated. Audio requires the same discipline: play rate, completion, repeat use, and ad-related exits should be measured separately. Our audio measurement guide explains why headline multipliers without those conditions are unreliable.

Podcasts move between video and audio

Edison Research has found YouTube to be a leading podcast service among weekly US podcast listeners (Edison Research). That result describes a particular US survey population, not worldwide market share.

The distinction matters because a “podcast” is no longer always an audio file delivered through an RSS app. A listener might find a video podcast on YouTube, continue on Spotify, and later return to a video clip. For platforms, discovery and continued consumption can be more valuable than protecting a strict media format.

I have tried to produce a podcast several times and stopped when scripting, recording, and editing competed with product work. Listening is convenient; regular production is not. Publishers should therefore separate the economics of a purpose-built show from the much lighter task of adding audio to an existing article.

Publishers should copy the principle, not the scale

A publisher does not need a three-format expansion plan. A useful starting point is to select several long articles or interviews, add site-based playback, and compare that behavior with external podcast distribution.

Platform-generated audio is also expanding. X and Google’s audio strategy shows how third parties can lower production costs while retaining control over playback data and the surrounding experience.

PUBVOICE is one option for testing audio versions of existing articles. Breaking news, code samples, charts, and visual comparisons may not justify it. Stories that can be followed with the screen off are better candidates.

YouTube and Spotify are not proving that audio is superior to video or text. They are showing that users do not live inside a single format. Publishers that offer a way to continue after the screen closes can preserve a relationship that would otherwise pause.