Yes this is a massive bummer. But I also suspect it’s becoming clear that

1. People subscribe to Spotify for access to the entire history of recorded music, not podcasts they can get for free.
2. The true cost to access all of recorded music is a lot more than $10-17/month. Remember that we used to pay $10-20 per album.

I wonder if Spotify’s explosion was another zero-interest-rate phenomenon.

As a music person, I deeply care about the 2nd point.