Spotify Wrapped was released, including Spotify Wrapped for Creators, which gives podcasters a year’s data for your own show. We learn 76 fans have the Podnews Daily as their #1 show (and Taylor Swift is your favourite artist). For shows hosted elsewhere, the data is only for consumption on Spotify.
Spotify Wrapped included the Spotify top podcasts for 2025 in various countries. Notably, in the UK, Steven Bartlett has overtaken Joe Rogan for the first time; and Goalhanger’s “Rest Is” has four shows in the top ten.
Within the consumer Spotify Wrapped, “Your Top Podcasts” appears if you’ve consumed podcasts during the year, says a post about methodology. Podcasts in this list are ranked by total minutes listened. Interestingly, if you listen to a podcast at 2x, Spotify only counts the actual minutes you spend listening, not of the original content.
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Spotify published The Year in Podcasting, a look back at 2025’s highlights for creators and culture in podcasting, from Spotify’s lens.
Behind a paywall, The New Yorker published its Best Podcasts of 2025. Audible and Higher Ground’s Fela Kuti: Fear No Man is #1, “bursting with life, humor, pain, interesting ideas, and, of course, sharp, catchy, hypnotic music”. The podcast, hosted by Jad Abumrad, is made by Talkhouse and Western Sound, and the season finale will be on Dec 17.
A report from The Australia Institute about the decline of Australian music might not sound much to do with podcasting: but it puts forward a particular issue with “English-speaking countries that aren’t America”, dealing with an influx of American content. Yet, we don’t see that in podcasting: where the UK, Ireland, and Australia have lots of local content in the charts. Something to think about.
The Australian Audio Awards have announced that they have recruited one hundred judges for the awards. Entries close in March.
Moves and hires
- Les Hollander has left DAX in the US. He was the CEO until April; he’d also worked at Spotify. DAX works with TuneIn, LiveOne and AccuRadio among others. Our sister publication the Podcast Business Journal interviewed the company’s President, Brian Conlan, last month.
