'Last Podcast on the Left' Moving Exclusively to Spotify

The eight-year-old show will make the transition to the streaming platform in early 2020.

A podcasting stalwart is making the move to Spotify.

The streamer has inked a deal to bring the eight-year-old show The Last Podcast on the Left exclusively to its platform, part of a larger push by the company to offer a slate of first-run and original shows to its 248 million users.

Last Podcast began in 2011 and features hosts Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks and Henry Zebrowski diving into the horrors of the world, both real and imaginary. The darkly comedic show is a regular on podcast charts. Last Podcast’s hosts have parlayed its popularity into a live touring business.

Nabbing a longstanding podcast like Last Podcast is crucial to Spotify’s push into the audio medium, lending credibility to its efforts as its makes splashy acquisitions and inks deals with high-profile talent like Barack and Michelle Obama. Other preexisting shows that have become Spotify exclusives include The Joe Budden Podcast, the German-language Gemischtes Hack and the Spanish-language Se Regala Dudas. Spotify says that all three have built on their audiences when going exclusive on its platform.

Spotify has also begun to window programming for its users, bringing shows like Esther Perel’s Where Should We Begin? to its platform first before it goes wide on other podcast apps.

Spotify, which began as a music streaming platform, has been focused on expanding its programming into the audio space over the last couple of years. It now offers more than 500,000 podcasts and is developing original shows through Spotify Studios as well as Gimlet Media and Parcast, which it acquired earlier this year.