Creators on Spotify earn Rs 15 lakh a month curating hours of white noise, nature sounds

By its own estimates, Spotify could save $38 million annually if it can successfully steer listeners away from white noise and toward more lucrative programming for the company. (File photo)

Creators on Spotify have been earning about Rs 15 lakh a month curating hours of white noise including nature sounds such as bird calls and thunderstorms. Now, the audio streaming app is cutting out such creators from its lucrative Ambassador Ads programme, which pays podcasts to read ads on air, starting in October, Bloomberg reported.

White-noise podcasts are made of loops of calming sounds and can range from thunderstorms and bird calls to pure static noise. Spotify listeners use these as peaceful background music for meditation, sleep, or study.

A creator, who quit his job to make white-noise podcasts full-time, broke down while being interviewed by Bloomberg. He was being paid $12.25 (Rs 1,018) per 1,000 listens which added up to $18,375 (Rs 15.3 lakh) a month. But this will change if Spotify revises its Ambassador Ads programme.

Also, with the company tightening its strings, Spotify will now require other podcasters to have 1,000 unique Spotify listeners over the past 60 days to be eligible for the advertising programme. Prior to this, it required only 100 unique listeners to qualify for it, the publication stated.

An anonymous source told Bloomberg that because white-noise listeners the Ambassador Ads -- part of Spotify's marketing budget -- was not money well spent. By its own estimates, Spotify could save $38 million annually if it can successfully steer listeners away from white noise and toward more lucrative programming for the company, an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg earlier this month read.

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