Dawn Ostroff

Former Chief Content Officer of Spotify, Independent

Search every verified Dawn Ostroff interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. During a December 2020 CNBC Evolve event, Dawn Ostroff, then Spotify's chief content and advertising officer, discussed the company's podcast strategy. Ostroff stated that Spotify approached podcasting "in a very strategic way," acquiring companies such as Gimlet, which she described as "almost sort of the HBO, if you will, of the podcast industry," to jump-start the business and bring in talent. She noted that the platform had over 2 million podcasts and had brought in figures such as President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. Ostroff described the approach as a combination of "art and science," blending industry instinct with platform data and analytics. Ostroff also addressed Spotify's dual revenue stream, stating that the free tier drives subscription conversion, which she estimated at "about 60" percent. She said advertisers were following listeners as they migrated from linear and radio to streaming, with more moving their budgets to the platform. She emphasized that the company's focus was on "quality in addition to the quantity" of content, and that producing, acquiring, and offering the largest possible catalog were all part of the strategy.