To further improve user listening experience, streaming giant Spotify has announced a content revamp. The newest version of the service was unveiled in New York City, and the version includes podcasts, a medium that's received worldwide familiarity in recent months.  

Ever since Serial became a worldwide listening sensation, podcasts have started to gain traction. Though podcast is a medium that has been widely explored since 2008, it only gained immense popularity after Serial broke loose. Numbers of listeners rapidly grew and according to a study, 46 Americans over the age of 12 listen to podcasts each month. The number accounts for 17 percent of the US population over 12 years of age.

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Tom Webster, vice president of strategy at Edison Research, explained that before the rise of popular shows such as Serial, podcasting used to be viewed as a "hobby" rather than a real industry.

"Five years ago, podcasting was very much a hobbyist's activity and many people weren't making them to make money. But audience sizes have grown consistently, and each listener is listening to more shows as part of their weekly habit. That's brought major producer to embrace podcasting," said Webster, who spearheaded the statistical research of the number of podcast listeners.

Additionally, 10 percent of the entire US population tune in to podcasts each month. According to The Washington Post, podcast subscriptions through iTunes reached 1 billion in the last year, signaling the full rise of podcasting and the kind of audience it reaches.

This is exactly the reason why Spotify has decided to extend its audio menu for its listeners, which now includes updated podcasts episodes. Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, explains that the company has shifted its focus from music to a listening experience.

"Music is moving away from genres. People don't search for Hip Hop or Country anymore, but rather they search around activities or a particular experience," said Ek during the unveiling of the new version.

With this new announcement, Spotify is the latest addition to the roster of well-known streaming hosts in the market, joining the likes of Audioboom (LSE: BOOM) and Stitcher radio. Following suit, Spotify has announced new additions to its roster of content partners namely Slate, Vice, NBC, BBC, TED, Elite Daily, Adult Swim, Comedy Central, MTV, E!, ABC, and Conde Nast brands (Wired, Vogue, GQ).

Aside from podcasts, Spotify will now offer videos and personalized playlists that will make the service be more like Songza. The new feature can recall what the user has listened to and create suggested playlists for a particular time. Another new feature that Spotify launched is the "running" feature that taps into the sensors of the mobile device to figure out the pace of those using the service while exercising. The feature serves songs whose rhythmic beats match their pace.

Spotify is not the first streaming service to get into the podcast wave. In late April, Soundcloud announced the integration of talk-heavy content for paying and non-paying subscribers.

TagsSpotify podcasts, Spotify, Spotify updates, Spotify upgrade, podcasts, Podcasting platforms, spoken-word content, audio, Audioboom, music to audio, Stitcher radio, Soundcloud podcasts, Audioboom podcasts