Music in podcasts: Engaging superfans with a new album campaign strategy

MIDiA has covered music’s big podcasting opportunity extensively. Per our June 2024 report, “Defining podcast taste: The universal appeal of music, news, and comedy”, music is one of the top podcast topics in the world; however, podcasting’s role in music marketing has yet to fully materialise. While we do not yet hear popular music on popular podcasts due to licensing, Spotify has not ignored the potential for podcasts to become a marketing driver for music. British rockers The Struts are poised to test that potential. 

On Oct. 15 — three days before the official release of their new single, “Can’t Stop Talking” — The Struts quite possibly became the first commercially successful act to premiere new music on a podcast. Fortunately for them, licensing was not a concern, as the premiere happened on the band’s own podcast, The Struts Life, produced by music podcast network Pantheon Media. With this rollout strategy, The Struts are demonstrating that the significance of podcasts for album campaigns may be less about PR and more about engaging superfans, ultimately circumventing the infrastructural barriers that have thus far limited music’s place in podcasts.

For anyone paying attention to the music industry, “superfan” has been a buzzword that is virtually impossible to ignore. From DSPs to labels, today’s imperative is to engage and ultimately monetise these superfans, who generate far more revenue for rightsholders than passive listeners do. Previously, the focus of marketing music was to reach as many people as possible, which is why mass media PR was historically such a crucial aspect of album campaigns and editorial playlists were arguably more significant. While PR and editorial playlists are still important, maximising engagement from superfans has also become an indispensable campaign pillar. 

Because of the diversity of podcast types, the format can offer both the reach of PR and playlists and also the depth of a members-only fansite. The difficulty with the former is that podcasts not associated with the artist themselves — a music interview podcast produced by a media company, for instance — would typically have to licence an artist’s music to play it “on air”. Podcasts produced as part of the artist’s suite of superfan content, on the other hand, have de facto permission, which is exactly why The Struts were able to do what they did.

With the help of Pantheon Media, The Struts have been nurturing their superfans for some time, priming these listeners with auxiliary content for an exclusive drop of new music. Hosted by Leah Jones, the podcast features rotating appearances from band members, giving fans a “behind-the-scenes look at life on and off the stage”. The strategy is really the audio equivalent of an email newsletter giving fans first access to concert tickets. The prerequisite with this use case, of course, is that The Struts have already spent more than a decade nurturing a loyal fanbase. However, that does not mean podcasts cannot become a part of the audience development strategy for an artist that does not yet have that loyal fanbase.

While the use of music in podcasts would no doubt benefit most album campaigns, the music industry’s infrastructural limitations means it will be a long and slow process. The superfan angle of music in podcasts, on the other hand, can already happen — it will just require some additional support from podcast networks and producers partnering with artists to incorporate podcasts into their rollouts. More often than not, artists do not have the time and skillset to create their own podcasts; however, that does not mean an artist-sanctioned podcast cannot be a key pillar of an album campaign — provided they have an engaged enough fanbase.