Imagine this, Daddy gang: two massive companies vying to be the new home of your podcast. That's exactly what happened to Alex Cooper in 2021, after the success of "Call Her Daddy" led to her being pursued by both Amazon and Spotify. While she recognized the value both companies would bring to her podcast, she ultimately chose Spotify over Amazon.
"To be honest, Spotify offered basically the same amount of money and less work," Alex shared on The Burnouts podcast on March 5. "So I thought, 'Why not take that?'"
According to the 31-year-old, Amazon would have required her to produce more episodes, with many of them hidden behind the company's paywall. "It was a lot," she continued. "As a creator who didn't have a company behind me at that time – I was a one-woman show – I was trying to figure out how I could execute this type of deal in a way that I felt capable of."
Especially since Alex wanted to ensure she was being a "good partner." "When someone is offering you that kind of money," she reasoned, "you want to make sure you're exceeding their expectations."
When it came to comparing the Amazon deal versus the Spotify deal, the latter was one she could more easily wrap her head around. "It would be 52 episodes a year. Every single month, I would receive a paycheck, and it was all guaranteed money, which was so crazy," Alex explained. "I didn't have to hit any benchmarks or targets."
Looking back, she's amazed at the three-year deal Spotify gave her, although she knew it would be a transition for her fans as they could no longer find her on Apple Podcasts, which was her "biggest platform at the time."
Despite this, Alex's time with Spotify was beneficial for both her and the company, as she brought more women onto the platform as podcast listeners. And while the deal was successful, she definitely felt like she got smarter when it came time to sign her current contract with SiriusXM.
Alex and her Unwell Network, which she founded in 2023, moved over to SiriusXM in 2024, signing a deal worth $125 million that covers a little over three years. "When I got my deal with SiriusXM, I realized there were so many more options and levers I could pull," she explained. "And while I loved my deal with Spotify, it felt very limiting and singular by the time I hit that three-year window."
