They started to pay podcasters to publish on Spotify exclusively. E.g. Joe Rogan.

They bought out podcast producers and stopped publishing their podcasts outside of Spotify itself.

Thanks. I didn’t know that and I’m surprised that producers would agree to put all of their eggs in one basket like that. The success of their business is now directly linked to the future success of the platform.

Some spotify podcasts can only be played on the spotify app.