Episode 267: Chocolove

Podcasting 2.0 August 14th 2026 Episode 267 - "Chocolove" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 00 - THE SPOTIFY "SKIP AHEAD" BUTTON &mdash; THE BIG ONE &lt;b&gt;What it is:&lt;/b&gt; Spotify is testing a button that appears on the playback screen the moment it thinks you'd want to skip &mdash; an intro, a sponsorship message, or an &lt;i&gt;entire ad break&lt;/i&gt;. It is bigger than everything else on screen. One tap drops you at the end of the break, back in the show. Premium subscribers only, selected markets including &lt;b&gt;US and UK&lt;/b&gt;, and only when the app is in the foreground. &lt;b&gt;Who broke it:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;b&gt;James Cridland at Pod News, 4 August 2026&lt;/b&gt; &mdash; an exclusive. Spotify never announced it. Semafor and most of the trade press picked it up afterwards; Cridland noted on air this week that some of them ran it &lt;i&gt;without credit&lt;/i&gt;. &lt;b&gt;The number that makes it different from a skip button:&lt;/b&gt; Cridland's arithmetic &mdash; skipping a typical ad break by hand is &lt;b&gt;nine presses&lt;/b&gt; of the 15-second button, plus a correction tap when you overshoot. Skip Ahead is &lt;b&gt;one&lt;/b&gt;. "Some people have said, oh, but you've been able to skip for years and this is no different. But a button that only appears when it's stuff that Spotify thinks you should be skipping is a start." &lt;b&gt;It skips other people's money:&lt;/b&gt; the button fires on third-party ads &mdash; Acast, Odyssey, the New York Times &mdash; &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; on ads inside Spotify's own shows. It even skipped Search Engine's read for &lt;b&gt;its own paid tier&lt;/b&gt;, PJ Vogt pitching Incognito Mode. One half of Spotify sells advertisers reach; the other half hands listeners a button to leave. &lt;b&gt;Spotify's answer, and the trapdoor in it:&lt;/b&gt; Spotify told Cridland it is "not affecting ad delivery." True only if delivery means &lt;i&gt;to the device&lt;/i&gt;. Cridland: "If ad delivery is to the listener's ear, which is actually what people are paying for..." &mdash; &lt;b&gt;the download still counts, the ad still gets billed, the human never hears it.&lt;/b&gt; Spotify's other defence: the button merely shows where other listeners already skip. Cridland: "I'm not entirely sold on that, but if that's what Spotify say, I mean they wouldn't lie." &lt;b&gt;🔥 THE LINE FOR THE BOARDROOM &mdash; read the terms of service:&lt;/b&gt; "What's to stop them from going, you know what, people are using that skip ahead button, why don't we just turn that on automatically? I went to have a look at the terms and conditions of Spotify. &lt;b&gt;There is nothing to stop them from doing that. Nothing at all.&lt;/b&gt; And let's be clear, that would destroy the ad-supported ecosystem that podcasting is." &lt;b&gt;Why the scale makes it existential:&lt;/b&gt; Spotify is &lt;b&gt;72% of all podcast downloads in the Philippines&lt;/b&gt;, &lt;b&gt;47% in Mexico&lt;/b&gt;, about a third in Australia, 75%+ in some markets. &lt;b&gt;~300 million paying subscribers&lt;/b&gt; plus 500 million free. Cridland on the smaller ad-strippers: "Podtastic will never be that big... they're not going to materially harm the podcast industry. &lt;b&gt;This is.&lt;/b&gt;" And it sets the precedent &mdash; if Spotify does it, every other app can say the same. &lt;b&gt;The YouTube comparison, and why it fails:&lt;/b&gt; YouTube also lets you skip some sponsor reads &mdash; but &lt;b&gt;YouTube pays creators to be there.&lt;/b&gt; Spotify pays nothing for an RSS show to be on Spotify. Same behaviour, opposite deal. &lt;b&gt;Board question (Adam):&lt;/b&gt; if the ad is baked into the file and the file is fully downloaded, who exactly is the injured party &mdash; and is that an argument for the download metric or the final proof it's worthless? &lt;b&gt;Timing, for the cynics:&lt;/b&gt; Spotify's Q2 report credited "favorable podcast impacts" with pushing its profit margin to an &lt;b&gt;all-time high&lt;/b&gt; &mdash; in the same window it built a button to strip other people's ads. Pod News &mdash; Spotify threatens industry with ad-skipping tool Semafor &mdash; Spotify's new 'skip' button could end the podcast business as we know it Forbes &mdash; Spotify tests ad-skip button that could upend podcast advertising <a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-v