Spotify continues to add to its exclusive podcast arsenal, and today it enters the space for esports. The company announced a multi-year partnership with Riot Games that will make Spotify the hub for everyone League of Legends audio content, including exclusive podcast series.
At least one show will launch this year, called Untold Stories: Top Moments from Worlds, a series of nine episodes that will lead to the 10th League of Legends championship this fall. Listeners will hear about the players and the national anthem through game highlights, interviews, and sound effects of games.
Two music playlists, including the existing one, “This is League of Legends,” will also be updated regularly. Spotify’s also plans to dedicate a day to the Worlds Anthem, a song that Riot releases each year to postpone its annual championship show, to give listeners a behind-the-scenes look at how the music is made.
The collaboration seems a bit unlikely, but it makes sense considering how popular it is League of Legends’ music turns out to be. The game’s YouTube channel has a playlist dedicated to the game’s music videos, and more than 21 million people have watched it. The game is also an official user on Spotify with its top track counting more than 154 million lists. Spotify clearly sees an opportunity here to confirm its marketing and attract gamers to the platform. Once they are, it may start to highlight other audio content, possibly other game-related podcasts, and possibly encourage Spotify to make their go-to music and audio player.
An esports podcast is also an intriguing idea, especially considering it’s a Spotify exclusive. League of Legends is one of the most popular esports, if not the most popular. More than 100 million people watched the world championship last year. Even getting a small percentage of these viewers to vote for a podcast would generate enough listeners for Spotify to easily monetize the show.
