Behold! Someone is investing in a podcast company

Behold! Someone is investing in a podcast company

The Verge

Behold! Someone is investing in a podcast company

Could it be a sign that the tide is turning? Danish podcast and audiobook subscription service Podimo announced a new funding round worth €44 million ($48.4 million). Participants in the round include previous investors Augustinus Fabrikker and HighlandX, as well as the Danish Export and Investment Fund.

“This investment allows Podimo to continue our strong growth trajectory while orienting the company towards profitability,” Morten Strunge, CEO of Podimo, said in a statement. “This funding isn’t solely about financial support. While profitability remains a key objective, our investment focus extends beyond financial milestones. We are resolutely committed to enhancing our product and sustaining a healthy business model that benefits creators and listeners alike.”

As other companies, most notably Spotify, back away from exclusivity, Podimo is sticking with it. The app has a library of more than 70,000 audiobooks and 1,000 exclusive podcasts. According to the release, the company’s subscriber base has expanded by 80 percent in the last year. But it still has not entered the major English-language markets. The app is only available in Latin America and a handful of European countries including Denmark, Norway, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Finland.

Earlier this week, I talked about Podimo with Podnews’ James Cridland, The Squeeze’s Skye Pillsbury, and Oxford Road’s Dan Granger on The Media Roundtable (episode out December 27th if you aren’t swimming in a sea of eggnog). And it is definitely an interesting company! But it is also not clear to me (despite previously asking for financials) how well the model is working when similar endeavors have faltered (i.e., Luminary). I also have not been able to get my hands on it, so if you have and have opinions on the app, feel free to reach out.

New York’s attorney general says SiriusXM’s annoying cancellation process is actually illegal

SiriusXM is getting sued by the state of New York for making it too difficult for subscribers to cancel their plans. The suit claims that customers who want to cancel are required to chat over the phone or online with an agent who bombards them with questions and offers. “Sirius deliberately wastes its subscribers’ time even though it has the ability to process cancellations with the click of a button,” the suit reads.

I am not going to lie, I chuckled at the idea that SiriusXM is getting slammed for wasting people’s time, a thing of which most companies (and humans) are guilty. But SiriusXM’s alleged practices do seem excessive, if true. Attorney General Letitia James’ office claims that SiriusXM’s own data reveals that because of all the wait times and obstacles, it takes subscribers an average of 11.5 minutes to cancel by phone and 30 minutes to cancel online. The suit is seeking damages for affected customers, as well as a $5,000 penalty to the state of New York for each violation.

“Having to endure a lengthy and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is a stressful burden no one looks forward to, and when companies make it hard to cancel subscriptions, it’s illegal,” James said in a statement. “Consumers should be able to cancel a subscription they no longer use or need without any issues, and companies have a legal duty to make their cancellation process easy.”

Clearly, some people have managed to endure SiriusXM’s cancellation process. The company reported a drop of 336,000 subscribers to its flagship satellite radio service in the first nine months of 2023.

“It’s telling that the New York Attorney General issued a press release before providing SiriusXM with a copy of the complaint,” SiriusXM spokesperson Jessica Casano-Antonellis said in a statement. “Like a number of consumer businesses, we offer a variety of options for customers to sign up for or cancel their SiriusXM subscription and, upon receiving and reviewing the complaint, we intend to vigorously defend against these baseless allegations that grossly mischaracterize SiriusXM’s practices.”

The long-term trend away from broadcast means that SiriusXM has had to get creative about its future. That is why it snatched up Stitcher in 2020 and Team Coco in 2022, and handed out lucrative distribution deals to top podcasts Crime Junkie and Pod Save America. It is also why the company revamped its app last month as something that looks and flows more like a typical streaming app.

We’ll have to see how successful the lawsuit is. I think if SiriusXM’s practices are ruled to be illegal, then that is less an audio world problem than it is a subscription-based business problem. Genuinely, what would happen to every gym in NYC?