Spotify hasn’t been only a music streaming service for fairly a while now. Over the previous few years, it has acquired unique exhibits and inked large offers as a part of its push to turn out to be an influence participant on this planet of podcasts. One of the corporate executives that helped make that occur was Courtney Holt, who performed a key function in bringing on the Obamas, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, in addition to controversial host Joe Rogan to the platform. Now, The Ankler reviews that Holt is leaving the corporate after virtually 5 years. 

Holt is reportedly stepping down within the coming weeks however will keep on as an advisor for a 12 months. Spotify will divide his work and group between Max Cutler, the top of latest content material initiatives, and Julie McNamara, head of its US studios. As The Ankler notes, Holt’s departure comes shortly after Lydia Polgreen stepped down because the managing director of Gimlet, one of many podcast studios Spotify bought in 2019 together with Anchor and Parcast. Holt additionally helped Spotify clinch these offers. 

The govt did not say why he is leaving the corporate and posted a easy due to Spotify on Twitter:

Apparently, there’s rising unrest throughout the firm relating to large podcast acquisitions that have not been delivering the form of outcomes and audiences Spotify expects. If you want an instance of the size of the corporate’s acquisitions: Its cope with Rogan reportedly price it at the least $200 million. The Joe Rogan Experience is not one of many exhibits that hasn’t lived as much as Spotify’s expectations, seeing because it’s the highest podcast on the service. However, it did reveal that the corporate wasn’t fairly ready to cope with the problems authentic content material would possibly deliver.

Rogan and Spotify got here below hearth earlier this 12 months after the host guested Dr. Robert Malone, who’s identified for spreading unfounded claims about COVID-19 and its vaccines. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek additionally apologized to the corporate’s staff after it was delivered to gentle that Rogan used racist language in a few of the present’s episodes, which have since been eliminated. Ek remained steadfast in his stance to not take away episodes with misinformation, although, claiming that preserving them fostered “critical thinking and open debate.”