Spotify takes on Radio head-on with a mix of podcasts and music in “Your Daily Drive”

Look out commercial radio – Spotify is coming for you. With in-car listening to the radio one of the most important and largest markets for radio stations the threat from streaming music has loomed large – primarily for music networks, but they had one thing going for them – the other content.

The reason FM radio stations have breakfast shows filled with music along with news, comedy, information, and interviews is because a lot of people don’t just want music.

So while many people choose streaming music for their daily drive, they might also switch back to radio, or to podcasts.

Spotify has long offered a personalised recommendation for songs in a playlist based on things you’ve listened to – that’s about to step up a gear with the launch in Australia today of “Your Daily Drive”.

Your Daily Drive is a new playlist within Spotify which draws from a range of podcasts and on-demand content to produce a list of songs and content for you to enjoy on your drive.

The word Daily indicates this will update daily, to ensure you’re getting the most recent episodes of podcasts or news content.

And it updates during the day too, so it’s fresh from the drive to work and then on the way home.

The podcast content will come from News.com.au, Mamamia and more, while there’s also some Betoota on the weekend.

It’s a strong move by Spotify who are aiming to be known for Audio, not just music – but there’s one thing Radio still has over it – immediacy.

News and Traffic are real-time and updated more than every hour, so how Spotify fills that gap we’ll have to see.