Remember back in 2017 when Spotify created a position of President of Playlists that had Barack Obama’s name written all over it? Well, President Obama didn’t take that job, but he is now working at Spotify.
Today, Spotify announced that Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, has signed a partnership deal to produce podcasts that are exclusive to the streaming platform. The podcast deal is similar to the production deal the Obamas signed with Netflix. In the multi-year Spotify deal, the Obamas will develop, produce, and “lend their voices” (guessing that means host?) to select podcasts on a variety of topics. The podcast deal extends their storytelling and their mission to lift up new, diverse voices from film and television to the audio world. (And don’t tell Luminary, but this might mean that Spotify is actually the Netflix of podcasts.)
“We’ve always believed in the value of entertaining, thought-provoking conversation,” President Obama said in a statement. “It helps us build connections with each other and open ourselves up to new ideas. We’re excited about Higher Ground Audio because podcasts offer an extraordinary opportunity to foster productive dialogue, make people smile and make people think, and, hopefully, bring us all a little closer together.”
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to amplify voices that are too often ignored or silenced altogether, and through Spotify, we can share those stories with the world,” Michelle Obama said.
Those previously ignored voices and untold stories will now be shared through Spotify’s network of over 100 million Premium subscribers and more than 217 million monthly active users.
While it’s exciting to think of all the new podcasts coming to Spotify, fingers crossed that the Obamas will also continue to dabble in Spotify playlists, even in an unofficial capacity, because they have excellent taste.
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