Spotify will team up with WarnerMedia’s DC Comics and Warner Bros. to produce and distribute an original slate of narrative podcasts centered on DC’s cast of superheroes, the companies announced Thursday.
The multiyear deal—exact length not specified—gives Spotify a first-look option at scripted drama and comedy podcasts based on characters such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, the Joker, and more. The deal will also see Spotify produce podcasts based on Warner Bros.’ wider film and television libraries, as well as entirely new series based on original intellectual property.
“As we continue to see explosive growth in podcasting around the world, we are thrilled to partner with Warner Bros. to build this slate of programming drawn from the worlds of DC and WB,” Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s chief content and advertising business officer, said in a statement.
“We’re excited to bring beloved characters and franchises from DC and Warner Bros. into this new world and to use our storytelling prowess to redefine what’s possible in the scripted audio space,” Warner Bros. executives Robert Steele and Peter Girardi added in a statement.
Over the past year and a half, Spotify has pushed heavily into the podcast business, starting with the $340 million purchase of podcast companies Gimlet and Anchor in February 2019. Since then, the Swedish music streamer acquired podcasting studio Parcast and Bill Simmons’ The Ringer and its popular network of podcasts. Last month, it signed an exclusive deal reportedly worth $100 million with Joe Rogan for his wildly popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, bringing Spotify’s podcast spending well over half-a-billion dollars.
DC and Warner Bros., meanwhile, are subsidiaries of their parent company, WarnerMedia, which just launched an expansive video-streaming service in HBO Max on May 27.