Spotify Partners With Alex Cooper’s The Unwell Network

Spotify is launching a partnership with Alex Cooper’s The Unwell Network.

As part of the pact, Spotify’s enterprise platform, Megaphone, will host and distribute the popular podcasts, Hot Mess with Alix Earle and Pretty Lonesome with Madeline Argy. Spotify will also serve as the sales partner for the Unwell Network, a subsidiary of Trending, the media company co-founded by Cooper, who is the top female podcaster on Spotify and the host of Call Her Daddy. 

The partnership may also include future series developed by the Unwell Network. 

The announcement comes just after Spotify announced a bigger push into audiobooks, by giving paid subscribers 15 hours of listening per month. The company has positioned audiobooks as its next business frontier, while still waiting for its podcasting segment to turn a profit (the forecast is 2024). 

And while Spotify has made several cuts in the podcasting space, including ending its exclusive podcasting deal with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in June and merging podcasting studios Parcast and Gimlet into a single division, it has been making selective partnerships.

The company notes the recent partnership with Strike Force Five, the podcast created by late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver, with all proceeds from the show going to their staffs during the writers strike. Spotify was the exclusive sales partner on the podcast, which aired its final episode on Oct. 10.