Music podcasts date back to the dawn of podcasting when former
MTV VJ
Adam Curry and tech columnist and former
TechTV Host
John C. Dvorak coined the term
podcast. Among the first music podcasts was
AudioFile Airwav, a digital audio counterpart to the
TechTV music series
AudioFile which featured interviews with popular musicians, digital music trends and music related gear reviews. Created and hosted by
Kris Kosach, AudioFile Airwav was initially available only through techtv.com and syndicated on TechTV Radio until it was uploaded by
James Kim to the iTunes Music Store in 2005. It remained there until the company was sold to
Comcast. Another early music podcast, called
Coverville, was started in 2004.
Accident Hash and Irish & Celtic Music Podcast and began podcasts the following year. Positive Feedback Magazine began hosting one of the earliest music podcast in the Fall of 2005. The show, hosted by Austin Jackson, was called the
Boston Audio HiFi Industry Podcast. In each episode, Austin Jackson would take user-submitted questions and spend thirty minutes interviewing musicians and other figures in the music industry. Spotify was one of the earliest platforms to produce music podcasts and has launched the most music podcasts when compared with other platforms. Spotify launched their first Spotify original music podcast, entitled
Clarify, in the Fall of 2016. They announced on February 23, 2017, that they would be launching three additional Spotify original music podcasts. The first was entitled
Showstopper, which discussed memorable music moments on TV. The next was
Unpacked, a podcast focused on interviewing music festival goers across the United States. The third podcast, originally called
The Chris Lighty Story but later renamed to
Mogul, was about the life and career of the late music executive
Chris Lighty. In 2018, Spotify signed exclusive deals with two more music podcasts—
The Joe Budden Podcast and
Dissect. However, Joe Budden took his podcast off of Spotify two years later when he decided that the company was too difficult to work with and was "pillaging his audience." In 2020, Spotify celebrated Latinx Heritage Month by promoting latinx music and podcasts, which included the music podcasts entitled
Sound Stories: Reggaeton,
Made in Medellín, and
California Love. The platform also hosted the Spotify exclusive music podcast entitled
Transmissions: The Definitive Story of Joy Division & New Order and
The Ringer Music Show. Spotify launched the platform exclusive country music podcast entitled
Country Shine with Graham Bunn. In 2020, The platform released the Spotify exclusive Disney music podcast entitled
Soul Stories on Christmas Day. In 2021, the platform partnered with
Dreamville to launch the Spotify original music podcast entitled
The Messenger. The podcast was based on Bobi Wine's life. Other music podcasts that are Spotify exclusives include
Wind of Change and
Lost Notes. Many other music services, radio stations, and news organizations have produced or funded music podcasts, which are sometimes exclusive to their own platforms. For instance,
Sony Music released the music podcast
My 90s Playlist,
Universal Music Group and
Wondery launched
Jacked: Rise of the New Jack Sound,
iHeartRadio released
Speed of Sound, and
NPR launched
Louder Than A Riot. In June 2020, iTunes started hosting the music podcast entitled
The Zane Lowe Interview Series hosted by Zane Lowe. The
Talkhouse podcast is also on iTunes. One of the top music podcasts on iTunes was
Cocaine & Rhinestones in 2018. Google launched its first music podcast, entitled
City Soundtracks, around the same time Spotify released
Showstopper. as well as
They Might Be Giants. == Music in podcasts and licensing ==