Mignano joined Spotify as podcast tech chief in 2019 after his app Anchor was bought for $150 million. Since then, he has been responsible for managing and overseeing the podcast tech on Spotify. As a side note, Anchor is an app that lets people create their own podcasts and share them online. This is definitely not good news for Spotify podcast fans, as Mignano has an active role in developing podcasts on the platform. In fact, he was the one who led Spotify to live audio. Spotify is one of the richest podcast platforms, and you can now find over 4 million podcasts on it. Also, Anchor now accounts for most of the podcasts available on Spotify. The company has asserted that around 85% of its podcasts are uploaded from Anchor. Spotify’s success on podcasts even made it hard for Facebook to compete. Earlier this week, The Meta-owned platform announced it wouldn’t host podcasts anymore. Also, all previously uploaded shows will be removed from June 3rd.
Michael Mignano was a key person at developing Spotify’s podcast business
Michael Mignano is not the first person from the Spotify podcast team to leave the company. Lydia Polgreen, the managing director of Gimlet, and Courtney Holt, Spotify’s head of studios and video, have also left their roles last month. Mignano, Polgreen, and Holt were all significant people from the Spotify podcast team. Holt even closed the podcast deals with some famous public figures, including Joe Rogan, the Obamas, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Of course, Spotify reportedly refused to offer a new deal to Barack and Michelle Obama. So they’re leaving the platform as well. Over the past few months, Spotify has gone through turbulent days. One of the most significant controversies for this platform was Joe Rogan’s podcasts, in which some believed he was publishing COVID misinformation. In February, Google also announced it had hired Spotify’s Global Head of International Licensing, Paul Smith. He has been working on Spotify since 2017, and now he is on Google to expand YouTube Music around the world.
